Ash Holloway
Location: Agriculture: Storage (West Side between Inner and Outer Wall)
Tomatoes, yes. Those damned tomatoes had been haranguing him for the past few minutes, delaying Ash from the things he
wanted to do, which in turn was delaying him from the work he
needed to do. Still, this woman held her form close, and Ash could feel his will being sapped from him as he momentarily lost himself in her touch, the feel of her pressing against him. This woman had to be an angel. There was no getting around it. An angel sent from heaven to both comfort and tease the emotionally beleaguered Captain, giving him just enough of her blissful attention to keep him going, and yet maintaining a tactical professionalism that kept him focused when necessary. Ash had almost completely forgotten about the sudden, unprecedented hallucination from earlier, but just almost. It was a worry. Lucky for him, Thana seemed to divert a lot of his worry with plans for the immediate future. Already she was looking out for him and this community. Of course he was being directed. It's what a good leader does in times of crisis, keep people working toward a goal. Ash was impressed, even knowing he was the one being tasked.
Obviously, she had additional motivation to get a good piece of work out of him, which he wholeheartedly embraced. The words that Thana used, "clean ourselves up", brought about a dulcet wave of memory from the previous night. Images of cascading warm water, the scent of bath soap mingling with more primal, urgent sensations. Then of course, she had to go and use
logic on him.
"You seem to be right a lot, Thana." he whispered, one knee almost buckling as her teeth found his earlobe. He felt a distinct pang of disappointment when she pulled away from him, a sensation of relative cold where she used to be, both physically and emotionally.
"Can't clean what isn't dirty." He could see a glimmer in Thana's eyes, one that echoed the pounding in his chest.
Ash noted the stack of bricks that Thana pointed out. He sighed, smiling gently, and began to take a sidestep in the direction of his task, when he saw something that forced a sudden stop. His taskmaster had turned her back to him, bending over to recover a bucket from nearby. He now had a decision to make. Ash recalled something that she had said, behind closed doors. Thana had said, very directly, that outside of his house they were totally professional. Only back inside were, as she put it, "all bets were off". To indulge a childish grab would be selfish, not to mention something that could have gotten him court martialed in his previous life. He sighed again,
"You have no intention of making this easy, do you?" He nodded, regarding that wonderful woman.
"Bricks it is, ma'am. But that other conversation we were having?" he said, referring to their more personal interactions just a moment past,
"We have continue that later." It was probably the only time that Ash had ever enjoyed moving bricks.
Black James(!)
Location: Near 545 Corinth Rd, Newnan: In the woods. (Not far from the Coweta County Water Authority)
James gave a quick smile as Beatrice joined him in the truck. Though the details were fuzzy concerning exactly what was going down, the quick and dirty basics were out there, all in the open.
"Miss Bea, I'm glad you decided to come with. You ain't gotta do this thing with Eden, now, hear me? As I understand, it's best you eat a bullet 'fore you let them catch you alive. Keep it in mind. Understand, I mean to do dark things. More, anyway. I'm hopin' you don't think less of me after." The misgivings of Gavin and his lack of extremely long-range hardware struck James as somewhat coincidental, as was Ryan's somewhat transparent advice to provide precisely that sort of hardware and set Gavin to the task. Truth was, the talented blackneck had already considered this as a possibility. There were a couple of vantage points where one might set up; windows or accessible roofs from which to fire, or the copse of trees that hid the warehouse from the main road, even in the winter. Perhaps the trees would be the best position, but it would really have to be up to whomever took the role of Sniper. These days, if you were going to snipe, you needed a spotter. Not to select targets and pick degrees on an imaginary grid, but to make sure the Walkers didn't sneak up and take to gnawing on you while you had some poor or deserving bastard in your sights. But hey, the former convict was correct. Throw the man a bone. They were all a team now. They had to be.
"You on point, Irish." he craned his head over to Gavin,
"Hey there, Tex! I don't know 'bout no M25 SwS, but I got Alicia's old M24 in back of this here truck, if'n you wanna give this meet n' greet a little insurance." Though the full accounting of what they did or did not have had not reached his ears yet, James did know a few things that he left the place with, personally. They were kind enough to let him keep his bug-out bag, which contained clothes, MREs, first aid kit, a knife and a machete (though he was more of a axe man, himself), poncho, water and extra collapsible jugs. He had the necklace that Kris had given him, and the box of assorted
medical goodies provided by Niesha. While in is house, he had shuffled off to one of his escorts a few sundries. And of course, while kicking around for that satphone in the back of the truck, he located both it and his bow (with a fair number of arrows), plus his massive Barret anti-materiel rifle. James had tools and duct tape back there, things he came into Newnan with, but he had no accounting of anything else Jim put back there, nor the personal belongings of his new cohorts.
He was aware of some of the items in the houseboat, but he was not the only one to stock it over time. Along with the other watercraft at Newnan's disposal, thing was largely forgotten. Only he and Ash remained of the original group that put the stuff there, or even set up this little oasis. It would have been nice to have gotten permission to utilize the other boats that Newnan had claimed. The thought did cross his mind to set up a little flotilla in some nearby water source. Maybe not the lakes they were right next to, but close enough that his truck or any other towing vehicle they could scrape up wouldn't burn off the entirety of their precious gasoline trying to get there. Hell, if they could put down Eden, anyway. Plans for the future would have to be put on hold. James didn't have a future yet.
There were other stores, one in particular, if Newnan absolutely needed it. Of course, it would have been of better help if they had a pilot... Better, not necessary.
Introspective thought about things that might be was not helping. They had a meet to get to, and in very little time.
"Aight, last call 'fore this train heads out, y'all. Last one get the gate, I'm outta here. Mr. Gavin, sir! Rifle's in back. Pick you out a comfy spot when we get closer, if'n you've got a mind to." James started up the truck, eager to get a move on.
Location: Closer to The Meet - IN A TANK
The directions were simple. Simple enough, at any rate. The past couple of minutes after Thalia's phone conversation had given her precious time to slow her heart rate and begin thinking like a survivor again. She relayed the turns necessary (or one major
turn, really) to Lola in near monotone, thinking mainly about questions she wanted to ask to confirm that this guy was on the level, occasionally checking the optics in the turret to try and pick a fallback in case things got ugly. Naturally, that assumed that things got ugly and she was still alive. The bring alive bit was important primarily because she was going to be the most exposed in this little gathering. She had to be. This was her mission and she needed to take point; nothing else would do.
It generally went against her survival strategy, being vocal and in the open. She was more of a "quiet and to the side" kind of girl. It had worked very well for her so far. This was a highly personal affair and family honor demanded that she be front and center for it, even if she was the last of her family. Still, she didn't know that. Strongly suspected. Braced for. Accepted. And there was still hope in Texas and Mexico, certainly, though Thalia had no idea what it looked like out that way.
"Thanks there, Lolz. I'm going to have to make this up soon, yah? Okay, road's about to end. Hang yourself a left coming up, and keep this big, steel baby headed south. Lemme know when you pass a highway and come to a school." She was back in control of herself fully. A little anxiety could be felt in her chest, which she tried to push down. This was nothing more than an initial meeting with people who may or may not have credible information that, if accurate, would alter the parameters of her search.
"Hey, Lola? If these people wind up being decent, let's not scare them off right away. They might know other stuff." Knowledge is key to survival, both Before and now. If they weren't decent people, well, it might not go so well for them.
