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"Just as one can expect then; the Hell that happens to you doesn't happen to Charlie, and it's our job to bring Hell to them instead. Just can't get a break, can you?" Alexander muttered in a similar fashion to Thalia. If the sinkholes and whole earthquake-ish thing happened to Eden, at least they would have been on more equal footing; confusion. But if Thana was right, the likelyhood was that they were taken off-guard, but not in a deep hole. And here they were going on the offensive.

Then again, if a surprise attack by a inferior force had worked in 'Nam, who was to say it wouldn't work here?

Alexander gave a reminding look in the mirror to Thana as she asked who 'They' were. "Eden? As in those guys that gave your people a beating? They who we are going to give a taste of their own medicine?" Alexander asked in a puzzled manner, before letting a further question pop out. "Don't tell me there's more assholes we have to worry about?"

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The more Thalia thought about their joint venture, the more she wished that she had grabbed her spear and bag from Lola's tank. There was no guarantee that she would be seeing her belongings anytime soon. If things went massively south, there was no guarantee that she would see them, or her good friend Lola, ever again. She had grown very fond of that unstable bitch over the last few months. It would be a damned shame if their travels ended here. Thalia told herself that this was a detour. Just a small detour to take care of some business; balance the equation, as it were. Her people were dead because of these assholes, and so they got the unique honor of a representative of both the Shieldmaiden community and Familia Gonzalez paying a visit to set things straight.

Though her mind was working elsewhere, she did want to make a showing of being present with the conversation at hand. "Lime sinks... Yeah, ton of those down in Mexico." Her reference of familiarity with Mexico might be taken as odd considering her mild New England accent. "Never saw one that big. Not that wasn't a couple thousand years old." When she was younger, Yucatan Peninsula. Damned pretty sight, almost perfectly round and filled with gemstone blue water. Tourist attraction that was almost certainly used as a sacrificial pit by the natives long, long ago. There were even rooms and walkways carved out in the bottom. Maybe she would give it a look one day; the crowd would be a lot thinner. She hoped. But even thinking on it, the hole that was Newnan had to be a lot, lot bigger then even that.

She was feeling a little more comfortable around this new lady who liked giving orders. Not fully trusting, of course. And she had to note that the other person in the truck with them was the guy that she met just that morning. It wasn't the best case scenario. She would have preferred to be with people she knew well, trusted, and of whose capabilities she was fully aware. This was a craps shoot. At least she knew the bossy lady could fight, if pressed to it. But could they be quiet?

"Wait, you don't know what supplies your guys were carrying? Shit, counting assets is a priority if we're going to go killing a lot of people." And she did intend to kill a lot of people. Bad people. People deserving of it. Her mind was crystallizing around that concept. Tio would be proud. Concerning Alexander's question, Thalia wryly responded, "Don't you worry, Mugs. There's always more assholes to worry about."

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Beatrice nodded at Lola's offer of "condolences." She wasn't sure if there was anything that she could really say. All of her friends were dead - there was no chance that Tiffany had survived the destruction of Newnan. She doubted anyone could've survived that. Once this job ended, she'd likely move on until she found a new group of people that she could trust. The tank was nice and all, but it was constricting as well and prevented her from using her unique skill set.

"This world doesn't care about right and wrong - it never did," Beatrice said quietly. She understood Gavin's ranger gusto, his feeling that the good deserved to live and the bad deserved hellfire. But things never were really that way, even before the outbreak. Justice systems were not blind and they were hardly just. There was poverty and hunger, despite there being enough food and resources for everyone. Nothing was ever fair. The universe did as the universe did and nothing would change that. Lady Luck didn't care who you were or what you had done - if the good died and the bad lived, that was just the way things were.

"You can fight for justice and righteousness," Beatrice conceded, her eyes darting towards Gavin. "But I'm here for vengeance, pure and simple. I'm not on the side of heaven or hell - and I wouldn't want to be on either."

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As Jack reached into his bag to pull out the map, he was once again hit with the crushing realization that he was losing his mind. He couldn't trust his own five senses anymore. Even as his eyes poured over the map, attempting to figure out the best possible route for his survival, he doubted that it was even real. This could all easily be in his head and the next thing he'd know, he'd wake up in the infirmary, told that he was running around and screaming about Newnan sinking. Was it genetic? He hoped not. His mother had always seemed stable, his father...Jack didn't know too much about him. He didn't want to pass this onto his child, if it was mental illness.

"Looks like north is the best choice," Jack explained, gesturing on the map. The other option was south, but it wasn't really an option - they couldn't go back into Newnan. Looking up from the map, he spotted half a dozen walkers to the northwest, about 100 yards out. He thanked his lucky stars that they hadn't noticed them yet.

"Walkahs coming our way - we gotta move."

Tiffany held it together as much as she could. But Zach wouldn't be silent, it seemed. "How can I be dead, Tiff, when I am standing right here?" Tiffany looked and saw him. He looked exactly how she remembered him. Her heart started beating faster. How could this be? He was dead. She knew he was dead, but she could hear him. And see him! "Jack, it's Zach. He's over there!" She urged Jack onward, ignoring the area around her.

Soon she got near. He continued to stare at her. She just needed to reach him. Tears started swimming in her eyes as she felt every twinge of guilt ride up in her throat. Zach merely cocked his head to the side and waved, before he dissipated into thin air.

Tiffany stopped short before she realized what she had done. She had seen a ghost and nearly got herself in trouble, along with Jack. Zach was dead. She moved on. She couldn't stop for too long to think about this now. Later on, she would have time to go insane. Now, she needed to make sure Jack and herself got out safely. "It was nothing. Never mind. North, you said? Let's get going."

Jack didn't understand why, but Tiffany didn't seem to be faring well either. Had they both been driven mad? He cautiously walked with her, uncertain as to what to say. It was clear that she had seen something - and so had he. Come to think of it, even Ray had hallucinated something earlier. Was everyone in Newnan going mad? Was there something in the air that was causing them to simply snap? "It's...It's okay. I saw Sutton. I saw Tatiana. And...And I heard Dick too," Jack admitted. Tiffany may as well be just as sane as he was.

He paused for a beat, before motioning for Tiffany to follow him. To get out of the area near Newnan without getting killed by walkers would be a trick. Glancing at his surroundings, he noticed bits of fallen rubble and piles of snow - enough for two people to hide behind. "Ninja-like, okay?" Jack explained to Tiffany. He moved northward once more, ducking behind whatever he could for cover to avoid getting spotted by the walkers. Fortunately, none of them seemed to notice him, and he threw an encouraging look back towards Tiffany as he crouched behind a bit of rubble.

Tiffany looked up just as Jack was mentioning Dick and she saw him too. He was dead, again. But she saw his body, laying there, being eaten by a walker. She let out a shaky breath. She knew it wasn't real, but the fact she was seeing and hearing these ghosts of horror's past was worrying her. They needed to get out. Get to some semblance of safety where she can calm down. "I see him too. He's right over there, being eaten. It's not real so don't look. I don't like this Jack..."

However, her peace of mind aside, she crouched down with Jack and avoided having the walkers see her. She ninja'd along with him. She nodded her approval. If they were going to get out of this, they had to be smart and being smart meant not letting visions affect you. If they wanted to be there, so be it.

Jack followed Tiffany's gaze, looking towards where the fake!Dick might have been. His heart clenched as he saw an incredibly pregnant Tatiana running from the walkers. He couldn't tell if she was real or not. If she was real, he'd shoot all of those walkers down and swoop into save her. But with his current mental state, all he could do was ask Tiffany for confirmation as he continued to creep forward, ducking behind rubble and anything else that kept them from the walkers' line of sight.

"I see Tati...You see her too? She real?" Jack asked, his voice betraying just how broken he felt.

"No Jack, I don't see her. She's not real. Dick isn't real. Zach isn't real. I even saw Ray running with both legs before and I was sure it wasn't a hallucination. If I'm losing my mind, I'd rather be in a safe space than the pit that is now Newnan and not alongside a group of walkers."

Tiffany continued to follow Jack's lead as they snuck around the horde. She wasn't doing too well. She felt herself starting to break, but she had to hold it together. Not only for herself, but for Jack too. She knew it was hard on him also. They had each other to rely on, at least. Hopefully the others got out ok too.

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As she was just ot open her buggout bag, everything was going quite oke... Suddenly demonic like barks filled the premise as Amelia jolted with a scream, there was a pack of huge damned hounds at the alter that were as menacing as the very gates of hell. Actually she might prefer the gates of hell. She jolted still holding her bag and ran in panic to Ray." Got to run!" She added, barely registering that hte ceiling was also playing a game on them. A 'guess who's about ot hit yo head game~'!

She tried to pull him up, but every attempt only slipped. She'd grab his ram, but as pulling she'd lose grip because she'd panic from a haund's barking. This repeated a few times. She looked at the edge of her mental strenght remains now. Tears or fear were running down her face. Her hands trembling.

Raymond was about to pull stuff out of the bugout bags to see what was in them, then he started to hear growling sounds and he paused for a moment as he turned his head over towards the altar and saw a half dozen big snarling dogs there. Raymond was frozen in fear as he felt something falling on his arm looking up as he noticed that there was some plaster that had fallen. Ray felt Amelia reaching for his arm and then slipping, he quickly got up as best as he could. "You don't have to tell me twice." Raymond said, as he turned his head as he started to hear things finally snapping as the building slowly started to give way.

The dogs were preparing to lundge at them, they were to be doggy chow, but not before the rumbling from the cieling above them turned into a roar, things about to fall. Her mind knew they had no more time. It was now or never so Amelia grabbed Ray and pulled him forward with her like their lives depended on it( which they did). Time was weird, mind racing, adrenaline high as the next moment she had already push the front door away and pulled Ray all hte way outside to the front steps when everything behind them went in a really loud and crashing boom.

Raymond watched as things started to crash down around them, feeling Amelia grabbing him he didn't hesitate as they made it out of the building. Raymond watched as dust started to clear out, looking over his shoulder and noticed some walkers up the street, and then eyed the way that they had came from Newnan. Which he wasn't going to go down at all, that would be certain death, looking over at Amelia. "We need to head into the woods." Raymond suggested.

"Fineeeeeeeeeeeeeee...." Amelia let out a long part sarcastic, part angry, part horrified looking sound as she continued to support Ray as they headed into the forest. Helping Ray walk wasn't exactly going peachy. At least she didn't drop or trip him. Amelia had once more returned to her half mad half empty eyed smile as the zombies around them were getting tangled into the snow covered undergrowth." We will get out.. yes.. out... get ...out... alright yes." She was mumbling.

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Riley looked towards Ashton as he started to pull out a bottle then looked over at Niesha, she really could use a drink right about now after just about everything that has happened today. "Could you maybe share with the rest of the class?" Riley asked jokingly, then she paused for a moment as she caught something in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look out the window and paused as she saw Amelia in a Barney costume, on roller skates, her mind started to wonder what it was like for Chloe whenever she was on drugs and got high on drugs.

Riley quickly moved forward and tried to grab for the bottle, even though she knew that this was not real at all, it was something that she really didn't want to deal with right now. And Ashton was driving after all as well, she didn't want him to end up getting drunk and getting the three of them into a wreck.

As it turned out, a wreck was forthcoming anyway. Sudden, awful clarity hit Ashton like a train, snapping him out of whatever hallucinatory purgatory he was thrust into. Reality wasn't much better, and his mind had to take in a lot, all at once. What was most puzzling was that, despite regaining his full faculties, he was still holding that damned bottle of homebrew. Slowly, he looked over to where he saw his brother sitting earlier. It was thankfully empty, except for his rucksack, his bow, and Thana's pack resting atop them both.

Thana. He knew where she was going, and what they were about to do. That's the thing about reality: It sucked.

Ash's mind drifted to her, and Newnan, and all of his people that he just lost - some of them people he knew since he was a kid. His Virginia people were most likely all wiped out by the collapse, along with the last of Leann's people and every local. It was appalling. Absently, the bottle left Ash's hand while the icy fingers of reality tore at his heart. He barely registered the bump on the front of the Hordebuster as a mailbox went flying past the grate covering the windshield. He registered the sudden explosion of powdery white as a snowbank on the side of the road was obliterated, though. Registered it just fine. It turned out that, even as his mind was drifting, so too was his truck; drifting right off the side of the road. "Damnit!" he growled, leaning into the steering wheel and angling the Hordebuster back onto the blacktop. A forced voice, near devoid of emotion, inquired: "Booze okay?"

Niesha wasn’t too sure being in the hoardbuster was safer then being outside. As Riley suddenly reached for the bottle, Niesha flinched, imaging shards of glass flying towards her if the bottle smashed over a tug of war.

What the hell was wrong with them all? She didn’t have enough data to go on. They could have been drugged somehow... she shook her head, seeing Ash starting to drift. Maybe she should offer to drive... although driving this monstrosity was a little daunting. More than a little.

As the bottle slipped from Ash’s hand, Niesha reacted instinctively, reaching for the bottle and catching it, bringing it safely to her chest, holding it so none would spill, although she wasn’t sure why. She looked down at the bottle, then back up, letting out a relieved sigh as she saw they were no longer running over mailboxes.

”yes” she said, keeping a good hold on it, ”we’ve all seen things, haven’t we?” she said softly, before taking a swig of the drink.

Riley started to finally get her head cleared over whatever it was that was making her see things, like a cloud had lifted finally as watched Niesha grabbing the bottle of booze from Ashton. Riley started to tense up when the Buster started to drift and hit a sign and snowbank, when the Hordebuster finally got back to the road Riley closed her eyes and sighed softly to herself.

Riley eyed Ashton for a moment when he asked if the booze was alright, she was tempted to say something she wasn't in the mood to say anything. Looking at Niesha for a moment and nodded slightly. "Yeah I've been hearing shit, then saw Chloe outside, and Amelia in a fucking barney costume. Now I feel like what sister was when she got high on drugs." Riley admitted.

"Yeah." Ash said with quiet absence. Sure he's been seeing things he shouldn't have. Hearing things. Feeling things. It was the barest amount of comfort that others were, too. His problem was that he had been hearing thing for a while now, anyway. About a year actually, and after some time he made peace with it. Even came to trust that it was part of himself, looking out for him. But today... today was a ballbat to the face. Aside from the obvious and painful loss of life on a massive scale, Ash had just found someone to care about that might actually care about him, too, only to lose her because she was on the wrong side of an instant canyon. Alive, but out of his reach. Ballbat. Face.

Ash grimly realized that he could still detect her in the air. The scent of her seemed to materialize in his senses, along with memory of the previous evening with her. He didn't even notice the tears spilling down his cheeks until the road began to blur in front of him. Ash's breath came in quiet shudders. He had to put distance between them and what used to be home, and to do that he had to keep it together. He was already all over the road dodging pieces of tree and the like, hopefully no one would notice that he scarcely had control of the Hordebuster even in the clear sections of blacktop. If he couldn't pull himself back into his trademark stoicism, and fast, he was going to have to stop. Stopping was bad.

So they had all seen something then. "I heard... Saw Sophia... was more then sure I could feel her breath on my neck... I saw Richard with that damn axe in his head... Ravi saw something too, he said something about a razor, I don't know if he was being coerced to slice his throat, or cut that fucking beard of his." She said softly, "I think... maybe we were drugged somehow... I don't know, but it doesn't seem like we'd all have a mental break down at the same time" She shrugged, sighing, and trying not to look out the windscreen.

She didn't want to see if death was coming towards her. Whether earthquake, or walker, or something more mundane, for the moment, she wanted to live in bliss. "We just keep on going"

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Alright, the temperature currently is 58F, that means snow is melting and melting fast but after the several feet you all had piling in for West Georgia, you have a long way to go before it is gone. New maps are provided below. Remember, the goal is to get to the bug out locations. They are located in the following locations: Arnco Mills, Sharpsburg, And Moreland. Each group, discuss which you will pick in PM's ONLY!!! (Reason being, let's not metagame this. No one knows who is going to what location. So, let's keep it that way and see if any of you wind up ever finding each other ^_~)

Now, below are our new maps....

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"Yes, those are the ones," Thana said. Her voice was all business and carried no weight of intonation to it at that time. It as was if she had turned off completely in the emotion department. It was probably best that she had because smoke was still rising from Newnan and every so often it would catch her attention out of the corner of her eye or in the rear view mirror, depending on which way she was going at the time. It was a rounding route she was having to take to get to Peachtree City that was for sure. Between the snow, downed trees and walkers coming out of the woods to hear towards Newnan, it wasn't easy.

Newnan... Ash would be back there by now if her calculations were correct and nothing went wrong. Would he find anyone of her people as Alexander called them? She didn't know but they were exactly her people were they? Technically she could say they were. She was living there at the time everything went down. She was in a position of authority as Lead Agriculture. She was involved with the head of Newnan. Did it matter she had only been there all of 24 hours before the shit hit the fan? Not in her mind. As with any military post, soon as your orders were cut, they were your people, end of story.

"I don't think I have ever seen one that was younger than 100 years. I am used to newly formed ones and the destruction they cause. They aren't very pretty things here in the south," Thana said snapping back out of the thoughts going through her mind. "Why I am stopping far enough out not to be targeted by Eden, so we can take asset count. I was not keeping us close to Newnan with Lime Sinks opening up. Ground is unstable and could be along standing issues for weeks to come. We needed to get away and far out before we worried about anything else. Peachtree City is just about as close as I am willing to cut it when it comes to stopping. Seen these things cause trigger effects up to 50 miles out before. I don't care to die just to count a few bullets." Thana made a turn down another road and half clipped a walker when she did. She didn't bother to swerve right then. A defrosting corpse wouldn't do half the damage a deer would on James truck. They were good.

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"Justice, Vengeance. Ain't they just the same damn thang dependin' if you are the one pullin' the trigger or the one gettin' the bullet?" Gavin said darkly as he pushed the riffle aside and leaned forward. Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out his wallet and cleared his throat. "Well, what the shit do it matter now anyways? Wes gonna give them one hell of a time. Shit when was the last time this baby fired something?" Gavin asked as he fiddled with the leather stamp on his wallet, running his fingers over the letters GC pressed into it.

"Oh shit man! It's been too damn long since my baby got one off. This is going to be like being without sex for a year and then finally having an orgasm. I mean one you didn't bring on by yourself," Lola said grinning like a maniac. It had been some time since she was able to fire off her tank. She lived on the edge that was for sure and didn't seem to care if she got herself killed but she wasn't wasteful and popping off ammunition was just that. So she saved what she could, it wasn't like even before all hell broke out that she could go down to the corner store to pick up a case of shells for her tank. It was even harder today but hell, next place she could find she would raid to see if she could find more. She wanted to stock up and tank ammo wasn't exactly something people took, at least if they didn't have a tank.

"Hope its pipes ain't clogged," Gavin said with a smirk before glancing over towards Beatrice. "I know whys I am doin' this, whos I doin' it for. I doin' it fer that poor girl I found out in the woods that had been messed up and burned out by these folk and to make sure they don't be doing the same to Strawberry or get a chance to fuck over me best mate. What about ya? Whos getting vengicied?" he asked as he pulled out Ravis green card from his wallet and smirked a bit. The man did have the beard of a god, not that he would ever tell him that.

"My babies pipes never be clogged! I clean them out regularly thank you very much mate!" Lola quipped. Gavin didn't want to know what that meant, especially with the look on Lola's face. Leaning back in her seat and taking out a few Walkers that were in their path Lola started singing to herself. "You know that birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Let's do it, let fall in love! You know giraffes on the fly do it, tank do it, deadies wanna to it, lets do it, lets fall in love. You know that he'll do it and she'll do it, even I'll do it, let's do it, let's fall in love!" she belted out with fervor. Gavin cocked a brow slightly and glanced over to Lola and then back to Bea, again he wasn't asking.

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Oh that would be just their bloody great luck, if Thalia hadn't already jinxed it right now and given them plenty more assholes to stand in their way to their designated mission-area. Sure Walkers were a bad sight, when weren't they? But if they met more assholes of the Eden-type that he had heard about the past minutes, he couldn't think anything else than that they were in for a world of pain. And for a moment, Alexander questioned his decision to get in the truck instead of the Stuart. But then again they had the advantage of speed, and if they got to their DZ safely, the element of surprise.

Alexander looked back and forth at Thalia and Thana as the ladies spoke of a phenomenon he had seen since...well when he thought about it, probably never; of course he had heard of sink-holes and the like home in Chicago and around Illinois, but he had never actually seen any. His father had flatly refused to drive the then young Alexander out to one warned about on radio, and it wasn't until years later that he realized that people could die. So in the present, he couldn't fault the Navy Girl for being so cautious in said situation. Even if a stock-count was never a bad idea.

He was about to say something hopefully constructive, when the truck hit something Alexander only assumed was a human-sized thing, before promtly realizing the Dead was coming back to life - no pun intended - from the frosty winter. He only hoped that the car hadn't been secretly hit somewhere that would force them to walk even further. But anyhow, Alexander turned back to his hopefully contructive question: "Mind me taking a look on that map? Might get a better overview of where we can drive, if you don't already have the route set out. Gotten good with maps these past years, even if the map is worse then The Kinks."

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Sam ran out of the church to witness the aftermath of the explosion form a gigantic mushroom cloud west of her position. The dark grey smoke rose into the air in a dance that almost seemed surreal to Sam, what the hell happened there? Can't be walkers...must be people. She then glanced at her surroundings and noticed the snow had melted considerably. The warmer weather was welcomed as snow wasn't something Sam had the chance of confronting before, being born and raised in Miami.

Another loud sound brought her out of her thoughts and as Sam cast her gaze forward she could see a building crumbling down and what looked like two survivors emerging from the wreckage. She turned back to look at the church's front door on the floor and decided it was time to leave her uncomfortable shelter - what she would miss the most was the moldy smell, or perhaps the creepy bloodstained interior. Truthfully, Sam couldn't decide.

With a small chuckle, Sam strapped her backpack's single strap over her chest and tentatively stepped onto the quickly melting snow. Finally, people to talk to. I miss you dad, wherever you are. With renewed optimism, Sam scoffed at the snowy and icy desert she faced. She ran track, this couldn't be half that bad, right? Wrong. Every step she took she sank down into the snow up to her knee. She had to pull herself out, just to sink in again.

With heaving lungs and snow compacted around her left leg, Sam decided it was a good time to take a much-deserved breath. Her throat burned and she thought that maybe the church wasn't so bad, maybe with a few air fresheners it could be home. Chuckling, Sam thought if she stayed alone any longer she'll go insane and start talking out loud to herself.

She took her fire axe out of its holster and used it to pull herself out of the snow and continued to use it for support all throughout her murderous trek through the snowy abyss. After a few more feet, and almost losing her boot to the snowy depths of despair, Sam stopped again.

Sweat ran down her face as she looked up at the sky and shouted: "just kill me!" After a moment she added: "On second thought, nevermind. It was a spur of the moment thing." And she just transitioned from sane to insane. A few more horrifyingly hard steps later, Sam had managed to make it to the road behind the church. She noticed the number engraved on the mailbox: 26.

The snow seemed to be more compact in this area, Sam noticed and started to jog lightly, axe in hand. She surveyed the area for groups of walkers, but it seemed fairly quiet. Before too long, she made it to the building she saw crumble down like a stack of dominos. She slowed her trek down until she spotted two people walking towards the forest on the other side of the road.

Without missing a beat, Sam ran towards them as she got closer she noticed there were a man and a redheaded woman, who was supporting the man as he was visibly missing a leg. "Hey! Wait up!" Sam shouted at them from across the street. She placed her axe back into its holster, as to not come across a murdering maniac, as she sprinted the rest of the distance towards them. "I saw the building fall," she paused to take a deep breath, "are you two alright?"

She placed both of her hands on her hips as she caught her breath. Instinctively she stared down at her watch to see her time and distance but remembered it was all out of juice. Damn, Sam would have loved to have been able to clock that run. Can't win 'em all.

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As Raymond and Amelia continued to make their way through the woods, he could feel the weird mental fog over his head finally starting to clear up as he noticed some walkers that were getting somewhat tangled in the underbrush of the trees. Raymond started to groan out in pain, his leg started to feel like it was on fire. Not having the time to rest up was starting to take it's toll, but he then started to notice that the walkers were hearing him now. And they started to take notice of the two, realizing that he should have stayed quiet as best as he could. "Gotta stay quiet.." Raymond said to himself as he tried to remained focused forward towards their goal somewhere safe.

Looking over his shoulder Raymond could see the heard was behind them where the church was located, Ray would occasionally try and shake the snow off of his foot as best he could. He then stopped as Ray heard another voice out of nowhere turning his head Raymond could see a woman coming over towards them. Though he didn't recognize her from Newnan, but she was another survivor nonetheless as Ray breathed heavily letting out a sigh.

"No not really alright at the moment." Ray answering Samira, looking over at Amelia for a moment. "We need to keep moving there is a herd nearby." It really wasn't a good place to stop by and have a chat, Ray would take a moment to look over at the remains of the mushroom cloud of smoke that was Newnan. "Raymond by the way, and this is Amelia." Raymond introduced himself.

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“I'm hearing the voices now... voices... voices... run.” Amelia was mumbling under her breath as the new woman reached them, while the walkers were being walkers in the surroundings, giving them good attention as possible meals. Ray was making some noise, but Amelia didn't even consider not helping him. If he lived, she was helping him to move forward.” The walkers will eventually get freed... got to go faster.”

“No... not fine.” Amelia replied with a confused half afraid face, noting the appearance of the new woman. Realizing that she was not hearing things after all.” Hi... help got to move before the walkers unfreeze completely...” She stated, her face somewhat strained, after supporting Ray for a good while now.

“We get through the walkers now while they are scattered... then talk.” She added, nodding at the scattered for the moment groups of walkers.” North's bad.. it leads closer to Newnan. We need to move fast before they clump up and surround us completely... move and talk later...” Amelia said, just wanting to get away and meet Riley again. Thus she started moving again, not really making any substantial noise in her movement to alert the walkers as they moved and managing to bring her strength to provide Ray with good support too!

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A smirk tried to spread across Thalia's face the second that Thana clipped that Zed. She put a hand up to her mouth in a casual manner, only partially successful in hiding the expression from anyone general view. It wasn't so much that she took any kind of perverse glee in seeing one of the shambling dead nailed by a moving vehicle, merely that the event caused a fairly random thought to involuntarily pop into her head.

Thalia imagined for a moment that they were on a nice, pleasurable drive out in the country; Thana at the wheel, Alexander with a map playing Navigator, and Thalia herself leaning out of the window wearing goggles, ass balanced on the door and knees bracing her solidly as she takes another whack at a Zed melon with a Louisville Slugger. "...base hit! Base hit!" she would scream, taking a point for herself as the last swing had put an imaginary runner into a hypothetical scoring position due to a full head-from-torso separation (but not very good distance, she was afraid). Three up and three down, the end of an inning. Of course, that was the kind of thing that Lola would be into, though she doubted that they played much baseball in New Zealand. Maybe there would be time to get in a game or two after this business was cleared up. Thalia was pretty sure that she could explain the basics of baseball well enough to get a more or less decent game going. Zed Baeball. Too bad they didn't have a bat.

"Either of you two play much baseball?" she wondered aloud. The smirk turned into a short giggle at the thought, as she passed the map to Alexander.

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Sam nodded at Ray, "Alright, lead the way." Sam looked around as she tried to spot the horde of zombies Amelia mentioned. She couldn't believe her luck, coming across the pair of survivors. Sam wasn't exactly familiar with this area, and from the way Amelia was speaking, it seemed as if she knew the area well.

As Sam fell into step with the pair, she offered her help to support Ray. It looked like Amelia needed a much-deserved rest, not to mention they would be quicker if both of them helped him through the woods. Her previous trek in the deep snow that surrounded the church had taken out more out of her than she would have thought. Beads of sweat pearled at her forehead and slowly ran down her nose and her cheeks.
Nothing a protein bar can't fix, though she would wait until they're out of harm's way to eat. For now, though, she'd keep quiet as ending up in a walker's belly isn't exactly on today's to-do list.

Which reminded her to ask: "Not to sound skeptic, but do you guys know where we're going exactly?" Then again, Sam thought that any other building would be much safer than those rundown churches. She was lucky the roof hadn't fallen on her head when she was there, and she was glad her newfound companions had made it one in one piece. Though she hoped this place wouldn't be too far off, her breath was harder to catch with each step they took.

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Beatrice was a bit surprised at Gavin's comparison of justice and vengeance. He had struck her as the type that would justify his actions as being motivated by justice, not by something as simple as revenge. This misread prompted her to reevaluate her opinion of the cowboy. His light mirth was matched by a certain darkness. To be frank, it was refreshing. She was tired of those who pretended that the world was a cheerful place and refused to face reality. She was sick of people like Jack Hudson - those who seemed to have a permanent smile all the time. Everyone had demons - everyone had skeletons in their closet. If only people would own up to it.

She mostly just listened to Lola's exclamations about her pipes and orgasms. To her, it seemed best if she just let it run its course. If she didn't protest Lola's crazy, then it wouldn't turn into an issue. She was a competent tank operator from what she had seen so far - just a little bit out in left field. And what was so wrong with that?

"You're murdering people over a stranger?" Beatrice asked, her eyebrow raised. She wouldn't be heading to Eden right now for a stranger. It was better that poor girl got messed up by Eden than Beatrice did. She didn't lose any sleep over the people out there in the world in horrible plights. They weren't her people - and she rarely had people. She certainly didn't anymore, as far as she was concerned. They were all dead.

"James, Tiffany, Ryan," Beatrice said bluntly. While she was a member of Newnan, she didn't have many connections to the rest of the community. Hell, some of them she was glad to likely never see again. But those three - they had been her friends. "What about you, Harley Quinn? Who're you killing for?" Beatrice asked, looking towards Lola.

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Current Temp - 59F
Roads - Icy patches, melting, walkers
Downtown Newnan - Shitstorm 2.0 (And you thought the Zomnado was bad...)
Buglout Meeting Locations - Arnco Mills, Sharpsburg, Moreland
Group 1 - Hoardbuster (Ash, Niesha, Riley)
Group 2 - Tiffany and Jack
Group 3 - Ray, Amelia, Sam
Group 4 - Thana, Thalia, Alex
Group 5 - Gavin, Beatrice, Lola

Maps have been updated below. Blue is snow, red is walkers. Remember, 1 dot does not mean 1 walker. Larger the red area the more walkers. (It is a sliding scale depending on how much I had the map zoomed in when I made them, I will let you know as you come to them.) - Remember to get Sanity checks if you have not gotten the all clear as of yet. (I believe the only one left is Ash currently.)

Now, below are our new maps....

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"I'll take a grunts eyes on the map any day soldier. Us squids don't like navigating on land," Thana said as she glanced into the back of the truck via the rear-view mirror. Granted, Thana preferred the land to the waters if all truth were to be told. She was a botanist after all, worked with people to help yield better harvests. Most of her work within the Navy had been one of two things. Either recruiting for the Navy or working with the U.N. and the Army to help war ravaged areas deal with getting back on their feet. Her area, of course helping the farmers. It was usually joint task force after actual conflict was over. That and during natural disasters, which seemed to pop up constantly. This entire thing with Newnan was an example of that but then again, this could be classified as a man made disaster. Had the city itself never been put where it was, how much longer would the ground been able to maintain itself before caving in? Ten years, a hundred? Maybe more. No one could tell at that point.

Thana quirked a brow as Thalia spoke up, where had that question come from? "Well that was out of left field wasn't it?" Thana said, not exactly realizing the irony of her comment. "Never really was a huge fan, granted I blame high school for that," she said as she hands tensed on the steering wheel a tad and she took out another Face Eater that got a little too close to the truck. This one was juicy and she ended up having to turn on the wind shield wipers to clear away the gunk well enough to see. "Family was more into other sports. Football for one," she added. She didn't bother to mention that football was barely on the radar because of her sister and such but she wasn't going there. Now if Thalia brought up more extreme sports, Thana might be interested in that conversation.

As they crossed over 85 Thana glanced down the Highway in both directions. North lead to downtown ATL, and a lot of hell. South lead towards where she intended to go after all this shit was over. Right then though, west was the bet but she stopped and glanced back at Alex. "So, idea on the best route from here?"

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"If some'ne passes away in yer arms, they ain't ever a stranger honey," Gavin said as he ran his finger along the length of Ravis Green Card before slipping it back into his wallet. He let out a breath as he let his head fall back and thud against the side of the tank a bit. A few of his curls falling into his face. "I've seen some shit done to people in my day. Rangers see shit near the border. Not like this, this was somethang else. Ain't right what they did. Ain't gonna let them keep on keepin' on. Plan on takin' ever'last one of them muthafu'kers down and let god sort'em out." The mans eyes were dark as he spoke.

Whatever Gavin and Beatrice were talking about, it seemed that Lola wasn't paying them a bit of mind. She was bouncing in her seat and singing at the top of her lungs. (Which inside the tank made it even louder, fucking acoustics.)

"When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)
Can get Russian reds to "yes" her,
Then I suppose
Anything goes.
When Rockefeller still can hoard en-
Ough money to let Max Gordon
Produce his shows,
Anything goes.
The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux.
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys
Lack baby clo'es,
Anything goes."

The woman didn't exactly have a voice to speak of but what she lacked in the vocal talents she more than made up for with enthusiasm! That bitch was PARTICIPATING! In what was anyones guess but hey, since there was no TV now she could make for some hell of entertainment. She obviously wasn't going to get boring.

"Huh? What?" she finally said as she turned her attention to Beatrice. "Oh hell, I'm just along for the fun of shit. My best mate wants to go kill shit, so I go with her. She's really middle of the road about shit. Bit angry but who the fuck ain't these days. So if she says she wants to go off and kill shit, I got her back. Simple as that," Lola said with a grin before looking away. "And I'm no Harley. I'm the fun half of Master Blaster!"

Pulling his knees up Gavin drapped his arms over them. Picking slightly at the scabs that had formed on his knuckles. Left over reminders of the beating he had given that asshat from Eden. Perking a brow he looked over towards Lola and then back to Beatrice. "Welcome to Thunderdome..." he said and then chuckled as he rubbed his face.

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Jack resisted the urge to sigh heavily, but it didn't matter. His grief was written all over his face as Tiffany confirmed that it wasn't Tatiana that he saw. It was just his mind playing tricks on him. Maybe she'd head to the bug out site that they were heading to - Arnco Mills - but maybe she wasn't. She could have picked one of the other three. The day before, everything had been perfect. He had finally had a bit of that white picket fence life he had dreamed of - and now it was all gone.

"Then we'll assume a pehson isn't real unless we both see 'em,' Jack said quietly. He felt it was unlikely that they'd both have the same hallucination at the same time. He continued to move in an almost ninja like fashion, relying on his survival skills as he hid behind bits of rubble and large piles of snow to avoid detection by the walkers, always heading north. They needed to get away from Newnan as quickly as possible.

Tiffany took Jack's words to heart, especially considering what she saw next. It was so weird she had to stifle a laugh she wanted to let out (had to remember...ninja!). Peaches was back and better than ever. He was now riding a T-Rex, who apparently stopped being extinct, and had a party hat on having the time of his life. Well if that didn't beat everything else she saw, nothing would.

Still, despite this, Tiffany knew better than to believe it. Something was wrong and the faster they got to their destination (Arnco Mills apparently) the better. She continued in much the same fashion as Jack, being super sneaky. She tried to put that last vision out of her mind, but it would be something she remembered going forward whenever she needed a laugh. She had a feeling that time would be soon.

Jack paused for a moment, scanning the terrain in front of them. The easiest path with few walkers had virtually no cover that they could duck behind. The other paths were less direct and had more undead concentrated near them. He glanced back at Tiffany, trying to see how she was holding up. If he couldn't focus on his own well being, he was at least capable of making sure she was alright - or at least, he dearly hoped so. He continued forward, taking the path with the fewest number of walkers. Hopefully, they'd still be a little too frozen to do much, even with the temperature heating up.

He stopped himself from cursing when a few of them noticed him - of course they would. He was right out in the open. But at least they weren't close. He motioned quietly for Tiffany to follow, hoping that he hadn't just gambled their lives away. They just needed to get away from Newnan - that's all they had to do. He kept repeating that in his mind like a mantra. While he had a gun with him, that'd only attract more attention. He'd rather use the knife if it came to it.

It was clear Tiffany was not doing so hot. The sooner they got out of this, the better. She looked back and saw they did get attention. So much for sneaking. They weren't in danger, yet. They didn't have guns and could only defend themselves with their knives, but it was best to get out of this situation.

As she walked, she could still hear the voices. She heard Zach, Ray, she even heard Dick. It was getting hard to handle. She wanted to reach out for Ray, for comfort. She didn't expect Jack to be the warmth she needed. Plus, he was probably super worried about Tatiana. Still, she wanted a hug from someone (other than a walker).

Once they got there, she would be fine. They just needed to get there faster.

In that spirit, Jack was trying his best to come up with the most efficient route: the one with the least amount of walkers and the most cover. A particularly thick area of snow cover to their northwest caught his eye. If they could make it to that, then they'd be able to conceal themselves from the walkers. The ones that had spotted them already hadn't done much. He forced a smile to Tiffany before moving in that direction. "Woah...Woah!" Jack exclaimed, as he promptly fell on his ass.

His butt definitely not happy about the collision with the frozen ground. Yet he didn't need the snow to chill his blood - three walkers ended up doing the job. Two were coming at him from the front and another from the side. So much for ninja stealth skills - if he was lucky, the worst that would come from this would be a sore rear end.

Tiffany saw Jack fall and the Walkers took notice. Sneaking was definitely out of it now. She took out her knife and charged. She got near them and attacked, driving her knife into the Walker's shoulder. "Shit!" she cursed. She yanked the knife back out, thankful it didn't end up getting stuck.

The Walker was now looking at her, which was a good thing as it meant Jack only had two on him and she was confident he could handle it (falling on his ass aside). She readied the knife again, hoping to end this mother walker's life.

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Riley leaned back in the back seat rubbing the bridge of her nose she really needed something to calm her nerves, her mind started to wonder over towards Amelia. She was worried about her, Riley didn't even know if Amelia was still alive or not or if she would even see her again she couldn't handle losing someone else she cared about. Riley then looked towards Niesha as she admitted to what she had been seeing as well, mentioning a girl named Sophia. She didn't know who she was other then the memorial board that Tatiana had set up back in Newnan, she ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not sure if it was something that drugged us, it all was happening up until the shit show happened." Riley said giving a slight shrug. "Still got that booze over there?" Riley finally asked.

The mention of the booze was enough to make the Captain shudder reflexively. He had just downed an amount of the stuff, atomized even more across the dash of his truck, and all after (apparently) receiving it from his brother, whom he was fairly certain had shuffled off his mortal coil years back. He could barely hear muttering that didn't belong there, but at least he realized that it didn't belong there. It was a start. The realization brought him back to almost the forefront of reality again. Reality was much uglier.

Case in point, the implosion, explosion, and pillar of acrid smoke were working their magic, drawing in the Dead like flies to a warm side of beef. They had many on the road in front of them, and zero places to turn the big machine around. Luckily, it wasn't called "The Hordebuster" for nothing. Ash had modified this vehicle for the sole purpose of leading a caravan of Virginia distillery workers and their families out of a complex besieged by walking corpses and through mountain passes occupied by the Dead. Ash felt a sense of sickening irony at that thought; it looked as if the remainder of them had just died in the collapse of Newnan. But that didn't help him now. Though the truck was designed to plow through the Dead, he would rather not take any chances. The first group on the road were avoided altogether. The second group behind them weren't as fortunate - two to one side were caught in the great wedged pilot and flung wide. As much fun as it was seeing the shambling ex-persons fly, Ash had to get what rained of his people out of there. With this in mind, he maneuvered the 'Buster around the next cluster of dead people and turned north onto Sutherland Drive. He wasn't certain exactly where it led, but for now, the object of the game was to get out and make for a bugout point.

Niesha sighed softly, looking down at the booze, "Its fine" She said wearily, passing it over to Riley, glancing out the window. She didn't know where Ash was taking them, but figured he knew the way, and it was a relief to just sit there. Do nothing. Although, that had a danger in itself. It left her thoughts open to drift. And they drifted, inevitably, towards Sophia. Towards Kristina, Tatiana, Victor and all the rest in Newman they didn't know were alive or not.

She tried to focus on things out the window. Which led the the walkers. Tensing slightly, Niesha watched as Ash avoided the first group, and hit the second. She flinched at the flying bodies, knowing they couldn't hurt them, but... they'd still been people. She closed her eyes and sighed wearily. "We're going to have to find somewhere a fair distance away, aren't we?" There would be unanswered questions, for... well, ever. They'd probably never know who got out of Newman and who didn't. Well, wasn't that the story of her life?

Riley smiled slightly when Niesha handed it towards her, and started to take a sip of it before looking over towards Ashton for a moment. She then realized that she probably should let Ashton have the rest of it, before closing it up and setting it down on the floor of the cab. Riley tensed slightly when she could hear the bodies of Walkers being run over by the Hordebuster, even though they are safe Riley still couldn't help but be tense.

Riley listened to Niesha and gave her a slight nod, it was the most logical sense because the noise would draw walkers in for miles and a herd could turn up rather quickly which was never a good thing. "It is probably the best idea, to get as much distance away as possible." Riley said softly.

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Baseball? Of all the things that could have been added to the conversation was if they played baseball? Perhaps that was why he simply couldn't focus on the map Thalia handed him, or that Thalia referred to him as a 'grunt'. While Alexander's eyes glided across countless red-dotted lines of highways, interstates, country roads and god-forsaken roads of all types and shapes, the only thing his mind managed to process through it's ancient wires was why she called him 'a grunt'.

Why was this such an issue? Had he made it so obvious that he had spent time in the army? Did that mean they realized he had been in 'Nam back during the war and that he had...done things? They already called him 'Gramps', so his age was a dead give-away. But what else? He hadn't realized that his time alone had not only made him socially awkward, but also reckless in his phrasing. Would they ask him about his past, or was Thalia's question enough to distract them from the issue.

"...yeah, baseball..."

Another impact of a walker against the car brought Alex back. Like a deer in the head-lights, Alexander looked at them with wide eyes as if he hadn't heard what they said, before regaining his composure. "Played only a little in highschool. Hancock, either third or second baseman, can't remember." Alexander tried to answer as casually to Thalia's train-of-thought, just in time for Thana's need for directions. Oh yeah, he had the map. Looking back at the map, he tried in vain to look for where on Earth they actually were on the map. But the distractions had done their part already. "Ehm...right now I can't even find our position. For once I guess I'm more useful at sea. Less roads. What do you think?"

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"Football, yeah..." mused Thalia, not really giving her two truckmates her full attention. In lieu of this, her eyes kept scanning the area around them, making note of concentrations of Zeds and hoping to catch a glimpse of street signs. Still, she wanted to maintain something akin to a running conversation with these people. People who were talking were more relaxed. Signs about their intentions could be gleaned from changes in vocal stresses and volume. She wasn't a trained psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, granted. She was a person with a mean hook, right and left, who had a long standing history of pissing people off. Like in boxing, some people just tended to telegraph their intentions. So she kept up a little small talk.

"Yah, Georgia. I keep forgetting. You guys are all about football down here. At least we're not in Alabama. Those guys..." She shuddered slightly, remembering her limited experience with 'Bama fans. She shrugged off the memory and instead tried to focus on the here and now. Thalia glanced back at Alexander, noting his hesitance with the bugout map. It wasn't exactly a GPS where she could punch in an address and get directions spa back at her, but she wasn't entirely helpless so long as she had a major road and/or landmark to work with. "Hey, you want me to take a look at that?"

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Beatrice had to disagree with Gavin. If someone died in her arms, and she didn't know them previously before their death, they remained a stranger. The fact that she happened to be there during their final moments was the luck of the draw. She had spent a fair amount of time on the streets of Justice. People were killed all the time - sometimes on purpose, sometimes almost entirely randomly in her opinion. And even if she watched the light go out of their eyes, she didn't know them. She only knew the corpse, the shell of who they once were. It was like the walkers - even if she put one down, she didn't know the person they once were. It was all just echoes, mimicking life, at that point.

"Is that an expression or do you still believe there's a god, after all this?" Beatrice asked. It wasn't her belittling him - she was genuinely curious. She had never been a religious person herself. She wouldn't even say she qualified as spiritual. But if even with the living hell that the planet had turned into, someone could keep their faith - that was impressive. It took strength. Of course, she wasn't focusing completely on Gavin - part of her was trying to tune out Lola's screeching. With the sound amplified inside the tank, she was 87% certain that she'd have a headache before they hit Eden. It was like being stuck with one of the weird kids in a foster home, but knowing it was just a bit too soon to ditch the place and run off again.

"Sounds like a plan, Master Blaster," Beatrice replied curtly, mostly glad that the singing seemed to have stopped for the moment. She was insane, but she had heart. Beatrice could appreciate that. She then glanced over at Gavin, noticing how he was picking at his knuckles. Those scabs didn't form from giving a walker a beating - not that anyone these days would. It was risky. If there was anything she respected about Gavin, it was that he stuck to his guns. He didn't sway from his moral compass.

"Guess that makes you Mad Max, cowboy."