Ash to Ashes

[ChaosDominion]

I stand up and brush the dirt off of my clothes. I look around and contemplate my surroundings. Before all this one might have said that we've come a long way from Trinity and Nuketown. In retrospect; we probably haven't. The hideous sounds of one of those feral beasts greets my ears, and I take off running.

---

Welcome to Ash to Ashes, the first installation of a forum RP about the nuclear apocalypse. Here, your skills will be tested as you fight to survive the harsh environment and the mutants, hungry for what once was their kin.

Character sheet
Name:
Age:
Height/Weight:
Hair/Eye Color:
Biography:
Skills:
Other details, if any:

Let's do this thing!

[Bluelagoon]

Name: Suzanna Ferris
Age: 16
Body: Medium height, slender build.
Hair/Eye Color: Long red hair, brown eyes.
Biography: Parents died during the war and she was seperated from her older brother. Now she's out of the shelter her aim is to reunite with her brother.
Skills: Archery. Is a brilliant liar, very manipulative to get what she wants.
Other details, if any: Is vary naive. Has a lot to learn to survive.

Anyone want to take over Suzanna's brother?

[Sunnyx]

Name: Mina Hyll
Age: 17
Height/weight: Mina is about 5'6 and has a very small build, which causes her a lot of disadvantage, she has small shoulders, small hips, and weighs in at about 120 pounds.
Hair/eyes: Mina has raven black long hair, that reaches down to the small of her back and is usually braided and then in a bun. Her dark hair compliment her tan native America skin, and her dark green almond shaped eyes.
Biography: Mina was very sheltered as a child, her father was a captain in the army and died in the war, where as her mother raised her properly, but kept her rather sheltered. Mina escaped from the shelter and her mother to live on her own.
Skills: Mina inherited two very sharp short swords from her grandfather and knows how to use them, very well. She also carries a small dagger on her hip and has basic fighting knowledge thanks to her father, and also has some knowledge on hunting and gathering.
Other: Mina is fiercely independent, and has a short temper, she's very new to the ways of the world and hasn't been exposed to too many horrors.

[ChaosDominion]

Name: Jacob Petraeus
Age: 15
Height/Weight: 5'7", 127 lbs.
Hair/Eye Color: Light brown/red hair, green eyes
Biography: Jacob wasn't really a geek, but he wasn't a jock either. He was unfortunately a single child, his father serving in the military. He eventually made the trap team and robotics, doing well in both. Thanks to his father, he also joined Boy Scouts and earned his Eagle.
Skills: Shooting/hunting, engineering/electrics, tracking, basic first aid. Jacob is also very charismatic.
Other details, if any: Based on me, except for the name.

---

I felt a finality as the tremors in the ground ended. My iPod had long since died, and I'd had nothing to do in the little bunker but wait out the storm. I stood up on shaky legs barely able to hold me, the jeans stuck to them thanks to my sweating buckets during the attack. My FTC tee as well, dammit. I had no idea what the hell had just happened, but I'm sure I would find out soon. All I knew so far was that North Korea to be on something, because they tested a missile, and the next day I was told to get to the fallout shelter. It was just me there on a Saturday, yeah I'm that kind of kid. Anyways, the teacher had gone to check on the situation and make sure that nobody else was out there. Something tells the that she didn't make it.

I pushed the door out to open it and it quickly fell with a thud. Rolling my eyes, I had to cover them as the glorious sunlight shone upon my face. However, that light brought a tragic vision to my eyes once I could see.

The world around me was in ruins. That, I suppose, would be the only way to describe it. The remains of the school were charred, with the only remains being a few desks. I could feel the residual energy searing at my skin. Remembering the tour I'd gotten, I made a beeline for the arms locker and grabbed an M16. I hesitated, considering how quickly I'd burn through ammo and when the next time I'd be able to get some 5.56 and decided to grab a KA-BAR instead. I slung my Remington 11-87 12 gauge across my shoulder by its strap and started walking. I was a good shot with that thing, having a registered DNR average of 22.375. As I slung it around, I felt the salt of a lone bitter tear sting my radioactive face. The gun had been a Christmas gift from my father when I shot my first 25. Now it was all I had left of him.

I ran my options through my head. I couldn't drive; the blast had caused an EMP so any vehicles were out. I guess I was walking. I followed the roads for about thirty minutes until I finally reached the edge of town. Great, I thought, the city. I might be able to find something here to grab. Call me a looter, but it's the apocalypse.

[Bluelagoon]

Suzanna paused before the airlocked door to the outside world. The others who sheltered here warned her not to leave so early, but what else could she do? Her brother was out there somewhere, locked in another shelter, probably. She needed him. She couldn't cower in the darkness any longer.
She hefted her tattered rucksack more securely onto her back, shifting the recurve bow slung over her shoulder and the quiver hanging at her belt. Resolutely, she steeled herself and opened to door. She hadnt seen sunlight in weeks and the scorching rays whipped across her face. Blinded, she blinked heavily for a few moment before she could make out the landscape. The shelter she was in rested in the side of a hill above the town, and she saw the blackened remains of the settlement scattered below her.

Grim faced, Suzanna left safety beind and began her hike downhill, to see what she could scavenge from the town.

[ChaosDominion]

As I reached the perimeter, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of movement. Slow, careful, I grabbed five shells from my back pocket and loaded them into my shotgun and rested the butt in the crook of my arm. Ninety-five shells left in my box. I'd better be careful or I'll be dead before I know it.
I slid down the hill, the friction warming my legs as I went down. I stood back up and began my venture into the city. As I walked, I saw a tall lanky young kid, and my first thought was of Slenderman; and was surprised to realize that I actually missed the fear from playing Slender with my friends. The logical part of my brain told me it was a memory from the past, and my stubborn part told it, Oh shut up.

As I approached, I could see that it was a young man, a Remington 700 .223 center fire bolt-action in his hands. A short crop of red hear peeked over a young face, prematurely hardened by the apocalypse. In a flash, he brought the gun up to his shoulder and aimed down the scope. I could see his mouth moving and heard him asking something, exactly what I couldn't comprehend. I pressed the bolt release button at the bottom of my shotgun and heard the most recognizable sound in the world - a bolt chambering a live cartridge. I cupped my free hand and yelled, "WHAT?"

He came running towards me, placing a strong hand over my mouth. "Not so loud, idiot! You want those mutants to hear us?" It was now I realized that I was in a ghost town, the only living beings there him and I. Slowly he sighed and took his hand off. "Sorry. I'm not sure what those things are exactly; but on my way here some... creature attacked me. I'm not sure what they were before, but they're helluva lot more dangerous than before. I'm Nicholas Ferris, well call me Nick, and I'm looking for my sister."

I nodded. "Jacob Petraeus." I shook his hand, and pulled back the bolt of my shotgun. "Now, why don't we get some supplies and maybe a burger? I hear McDonald's prices are really low right now." I arched my eyebrows a little and Nick chuckled. "Jesus man, you are one piece of it."

[Bluelagoon]

Suzanna stared round with wide eyes as she trudged downhill. Her hiking boots crunched over what was once soft soil, and had been reduced during the fallout to dry, sandy dust. The only grasses were stuggling, yellow strands and the once lush trees were now black, crooked limbs thrusting frailly out of the ground. The sky was a sickly grey, and the air smelt warm and sour.

The path she followed was the same one she had scrambled up to get to the shelter as the bomb sirens sounded, swept along by the panicked crowds after she lost her brother.

As she approached the town, Suzanna slowed her pace. The stillness of it was eerie and made her cautious. A decent time had passed since the fallout. Why had no one returned and attempted to rebuild? Was the entire population still cowering in their shelters? She sighed. Her journey looked like it was going to be a lonely one.

She made a mental list of what she needed. Food, mainly. She hadn't had the heart to take supplies from the other survivors in the shelter, mostly families and elderly, who she knew wouldn't venture out until they had no choice. The first two convenience stores she encountered however, had been looted. The shelves picked completely clean. This struck Suzanna as rather odd, seeing as the town was clearly deader than a bone. "There must be someone here..." She muttered, and suddenly had the unwelcome feeling she was being watched. She tried to shake the feeling and keep walking, but wanted to get out of the place as quickly as possible.

She was considering breaking into the houses and raiding cupboards to get what she needed when she noticed a Mcdonalds a few streets away. She rolled her eyes at the thought, but figured she'd have a better chance at filling her stomach there than anywhere else nearby. Mcdonald's, proud sponsors of the apocalypse.

She had barely changed her direction when something hulking and swollen lumbered into the road a hundred yards ahead of her. She froze. It had the shape of a lopsided human, with blistered red skin and an angry, bloodied stare that it fixed on Suzanna. She remembered hearing these beasts writhing and smashing against the shelter door when the fallout was new. She thought at the time they were just victims of radiation sickness, and guessed that the thing across the road was what they had become.

The mutant snarled and took a step towards her, and Suzanna abrubtly un-froze. She slung her bow off her shoulder as she dived behind a burned out car, and hastily nocked an carbon fibre arrow. The things thunderous footsteps ringing in her ears, she took a deep breath and leaned over the car bonnet to take aim. The monster's mottled red face in her sights, she loosed.

[ChaosDominion]

There was the blast of shattering glass as I pulled the trigger. Damn, that had been a close one. There had been a woman defending herself from some freaky creature, so I had shot it with my shotgun. The spread hit it squarely in what resembled a face, and as it went down in a trail of blood I couldn't decide if it looked better before or after.

I opened the door and quickly led the girl inside, extending a somewhat-muscular arm. "What the hell was that thing?"

Behind me I heard Nick crying tears of joy. "Suzanne!"

[Bluelagoon]

"Hey!" Suzanna shouted, as she followed the guy with the shotgun.

"What the hell was that thing!?"

"Where the hell did you come from? ... And don't steal my kill, you-"

"Suzanna!"

Suzanna wrenched her arm free and whirled at the sound of that voice. Before she could see anything Nick had grabbed her in a massive bear hug. Tousling her hair, he cried "You're alive!"

She laughed, returning his hug. "I thought... I thought I'd be searching for you forever."

Nick let go of her, and nodded to the brown haired guy who pulled her to safety. "This is Jacob. We were just about to grab a burger. Come on."

[ChaosDominion]

I lifted up the fryer and let the grease flow out as I hefted up the french fries, letting the smell waft throughout the building. I put them into a carton and a tray, quickly put together three Big Macs, and put them on a plate. I'd done a short stint here last year, it was amusing how we found solace here even in the middle of the apocalypse.

"First things first, I want to know everything about you." Seeing Suzanna's mortified look, I snorted and finished, "Not like that! I mean how you got here and stuff. Second of all, what was that thing?"

As I thought about my predicament, the lyrics to one of my favorite songs rang out in my head:
I'm waking up to ash and dust/I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust, I'm breathing in the chemicals/I'm breaking in, shaping up, ejecting out on the prison bus. This is it, the apocalypse, whoa.