Alyce - QZ

Pain. That was all she knew. The only reality in her mind.
She heard gun shots, but her mind couldn't process what they meant. She heard men shouting and yelling in pain, but couldn't make sense of it all. Then the shots stopped and someone grabbed her by her hurt hand. She screamed in agony, the cloth finally falling from her mouth. A rough hand grabbed her by her braid and dragged her across the floor. She was lifted up and her world turned upside down as she was tossed over someone's shoulder.
"Kill the crazy bitch!" her captor ordered as he ran out the door. "I'm dumping this one outside."

It took Alyce more then a few minutes to realize what he meant.
He was dumping her outside the QZ...

- Outside the QZ
She didn't know how they got out of the city and she couldn't get her bearings on her surroundings. The pain was still intense and all the blood had rushed to her head from being held upside down, making her dizzy and disoriented.

Suddenly she was slammed onto the ground. She coughed and tasted blood in her mouth. Hands roamed her body as her jumpsuit was removed, leaving her in just her tank top and underwear. She heard tearing sounds and managed to get her eyes open and focused enough to see him ripping her jumpsuit to shreds. He also took her ID pass. No doubt he was going to leave them for the soldiers to find in the city somewhere, a testimant to their cruelty and her murder.

A hand grabbed her face hard. "Hope the clickers enjoy chewing on you bitch," he snarled and shoved her face away. She heard his steps fade away.
Whimpers escaped her throat. She put her good hand over her mouth, trying to muffle them. The clickers hunted by sound. She had to keep quiet.
But her hand hurt so badly...
She dared to look at it and wished she hadn't. Two of her fingers were pulled out of joint and they were pointing the wrong way. Blood ran down from the cuts he had made in her chest and shoulders. Her lip was cut and there was a dark bruise forming under her right eye and more bruises on her arms and legs.
And they had been interrupted. She didn't even want to think about how badly she would had looked if they had done all they had planned.

Alyce struggled to get to her feet but fell back down, nearly screaming when she landed on her injured hand.
Then the sound that made her blood turn to ice:
Click... Click Click... Click...

Panicking, she scrambled underneath a piece of a building that had fallen over and had overgrown with vines. The clicks came closer until a single clicker appeared. Alyce told herself to be still, told herself to calm down, but inside she was terrified. She wanted to scream and run. She shook with the effort to remain hidden. The clicker came closer to her hiding place.
No... God, please... someone...

Daniel Crowe - Outside the QZ

As Daniel trekked over the rubble of the building, he had one thought. Emma is going to be ticked that I'm not at home... He'd planned to be home before she got back, but now that the clickers had appeared, this run was going to screw him over. It had been simple, deliver the message to some Firefly named Marla or Marlene -- something like that -- and get back into Boston. Why had he expected it to go well?

To make matters worse, when he'd finally gotten close to Boston, the man had shown up with the girl, stripped her to her underwear and shirt and left her. Had he ra- no, he wouldn't have left her alive if he'd done that... The clickers hadn't pinpointed her before she got to a hiding spot. He had to help her; he couldn't leave her to die. Daniel reached down and grabbed a large stone from the rubble and threw it towards a brick down the disastrous street. When the clicks of the infected came again and he watched the run towards the sound, Daniel aimed down the sights of his M16 and pulled the trigger, sending a three rounds burst into the clicker's head. The other infected came charging towards him. When he missed his next shot, the clicker drew down on him. It gnashed at his face with his fungal head.

Daniel shoved the creature from him, quickly yanked it his knife from his belt and jabbed it into the clicker's head. He breathed heavily and stood from the carcass. Daniel turned around and looked towards the girl's hiding spot. "Hey- uh..... - naked girl... you can... you can come out now... I'm mostly friendly...."

Matt thought maybe he was getting paranoid. He almost decided to let it go, but when he saw the glint of a steel knife shine in the sun, he knew his instincts had been correct. "Look, buddy, you're not fooling anyone." he said, pulling his Glock out of his holster. "Come out with your hand's up, and I'll let you go. If you keep hiding, If I have to come get you I'm gonna ki-"

Matt almost didn't hear them, but the unmistakable sound of Clickers kept rising and rising. He dropped his attention from whoever was in the bushes and started scanning his surroundings. Off in the distance, he saw the a few shambling forms in the distance. What the hell? How did they sneak up on me? Matt thought. Without thinking, he pointed his gun and squeezed off a round at the nearest Clicker. Not only did he miss, but the sound of the shot got the attention of the infected creatures. Feeling terrified, (and a bit embarrassed for his lack of self control), he turned back to the guy in the bushes. "Sorry! Run!" he said before hauling ass in the opposite direction.

He ran as fast as he could, as far away from the clickers as possible. He knew he would either have to try and lose them or kill him, because Clickers never get tired of chasing their targets. Before he could make his choice, one of them wandered into his path. Before Matt skidded to a halt, the creature lunged at Matt, arms reaching for him. Before the monster could get it's hands around him, Matt placed his gun under it's chin and pulled the trigger. The bullet broke through the creature's fleshy skull and came out of the top of it's skull. As the monster fell back, Matt dropped his pistol on the ground and took his axe in both hands. The creature, though severely injured, tried again to grab at him. With all the strength he could muster, Matt Schafer buried the smile of his axe blade into the creatures chest. The force of the impact sent the Clicker colliding into the ground onto it's back. Matt, quickly wrenching his axe free, gave the clicker a blow to it's neck, finally killing it.

Matt turned around, axe raised, and saw no Clicker's chasing him, and heard none of their distinctive clicking. I hope they found something better to chase. Still on edge, he almost jumped when he heard a quiet sigh, almost like a whimper, from behind. He was expecting another fight, but instead found someone crouched underneath a ruined piece of wall. By the sound's they were making, they were in very serious pain. Matt picked up his pistol and carefully walked towards the run down shelter.

(I know it's conflicting with Panda's post, but I'm tired and a little intoxicated, so we can try and figure this out tomorrow. Hooray for booze.)

Alyce was being caried away as the other men kept shooting at Emi. "God damnit" She saw that she was running low on bullets, there were only 3 men left inside the building. She sniped one of the men down right through his heart he fell down at the ground and grabbed one of the other men with his last breath he had. Emi trew her knife at the other men as she started running towards the only one left. "I got you now." A shot was fired from his gun right through her right shoulder. She dashed into him after that leaving a lot of pain in her shoulder. She grabbed the m9 that the her held and shot in his forhead. She walked outside with her sniper only held with her left hand as she encountered anoter one. "Are you the last one she said to matt while aiming at his head from behind. "Drop your weapons and say where you left the girl." Blood dripped heavily down her shoulder. She feeled a bit hazzy as everything started to spin and began to lose color.

Cameron
Panic filled Cameron as he heard the man start to speak. He knew he couldn’t stay in the bushes as he watched the man grab his gun and running wasn’t an option as he feared of being shot from behind as he tried to make is getaway. However staying could mean his death as well as Cameron wondered if what the man was saying was true when the man said he would let Cameron go if he revealed himself. Sheathing his hunting knife back, Cameron readied himself to stand up, regretting having to do so knowing that the outcome could turn out bad. However before he moved, he heard the gun go off as Cameron jumped back in panic thinking that the man was shooting at him but as the man yelled at him Cameron knew that something was very wrong. Seeing the man run which was quickly followed by a Clicker, Cameron waited for the two to move far enough away for him to make his escape in the other direction.

As he ran Cameron could hear a gun go off which didn’t sound like the same gun the man had which made him wonder if he was traveling with someone else. However that wasn’t a concern to Cameron, he had to get away before the man caught up with him. Other people could be dangerous and had to be approached with caution but if the man was a Hunter that could guarantee danger for Cameron. Turning his head back, he could see the same man off in the distance, this time with an axe in his hand as he prepared to take a swing at the Clicker. However while turned his focus behind him, he didn’t notice the oncoming debris on the ground, causing him to trip and skid onto the ground. His knees stung and as he glanced at his hand he could see that they were scratched up. As he scrambled onto his feet Cameron saw another Clicker about fifty yards ahead of him.

“Oh crap, I’m dead. I’m dead for sure.” The boy mumbled to himself knowing that running away from the Clicker would bring him towards the man but if he stayed where he was or continued forwards he would have to deal with the Clicker. Raising his gun up, Cameron aimed his shotgun at the Clicker and fired off a single round. Wincing at the recoil and knowing that he would have a bruise on him shoulder later on, the boy looked towards the Clicker who was now running towards him. Knowing that he had two more three inch shells in the magazine, Cameron took another shot at the Clicker before it came too close. This time he could see the lead shots hit his target, but it wasn’t enough to take the Clicker down. Cameron knew that he probably should have ran by now to create some distance between him and the Clicker but he had to try again knowing that the alternative would be running towards the man.

Aiming for his head, Cameron watched as the Clicker fell to the ground .Relief filled the boy as he paused for a few seconds looking at the creature. He had seen other infected before with his uncle but this one was the first one he had taken out on his own. With the Clicker only being fifteen feet when it fell, it was much too close for comfort but he was glad to see that he was able to take care of himself for the most part.

After reloading his shotgun, the boy slung his gun back onto his back by the gun’s strap and started to walk, knowing that he needed to create distance between him and where he saw the man in case he came back. As the boy walked, he looked at his hands. Wincing as he tried to remove the gravel and other debris from his hands, he was glad to see that his hands were not too bloodied or damaged.

Tia
Tia watched from above as a pair of Clickers made their way down the street and found the two bodies below. She knew that she could have taken them out quite easily from where she was but decided against it as she watched the two Clickers with mild interest as she wondered if she could use the two for her own purposes. If she found a way to trap the two and maybe even a few more, she could always use them when a larger group came traveling through Pittsburg since she was usually outgunned to go against a group. If she had a few infected to help her to thin the crowd out, she would be able to save on ammunition as well as take out the group easier. However since she had planned to change location within the next few days, Tia decided to work on her plan at a later time.

Looking around the room which she used as her home for the last few days, her gaze stopped at a shelves of books. A small smile crossed Tia’s lips as she came up with an idea. Tossing a book out of the window, Tia watched as the Clickers reacted and scurried over towards where the book landed on the street, unaware of where the books were coming from. After playing with the Clickers for a little while a noise broke the near silence as she heard the sound of distant gunfire. As quiet as it was, Tia knew that whatever was happening was at quite a distance but it didn’t mean that the action wouldn’t come to the city. Leaving the infected down at the street, Tia made her way further up the building until she reached the roof and looked out at a distance. Although she wasn’t able to see the source of the gunfire, she could tell the general direction it was coming from. Sitting down so that she was out of view, Tia scanned the distance to see if the commotion she heard would make its way towards her. She was more than ready for some action because the entertainment value of a few infected wouldn't last for long.

"Drop your weapons and say where you left the girl." said the girl holding an overly large sniper rifle. Matt dropped his pistol, but kept his axe. He wasn't going to completely disarm himself, especially for something so stupid. He looked ahead and saw a man with an M16 approach the hideout of the wounded... whoever it was. He'd worry about that later, right now he had to try and take care of himself.

"Listen, lady. Your bleeding and you're making a at least 3 big mistakes. If you put the gun down and let me help you, I'll point them out to you. I'd hate for you to do something this ridiculous again." He wasn't sure how he was gonna take this, but he tensed anyway. He wasn't lying about what she was doing. She was in no state to hold him like this. She was bleeding, using an overly large weapon, and it was in her left hand. He might be fast enough to disarm her, but it still seemed risky.

Alyce - Outside QZ - Daniel

Alyce heard gun shots. Someone was here! Someone with a gun! Relief washed over her.
Since the clickers had appeared the terror had distracted her from the pain. Now that they were gone, the pain of her hand came rushing back to her and she groaned. She crawled carefully from her hiding place, in too much pain to care that she was in nothing but a tank top and underwear in front of a strange man.

"Please," she begged, holding out her hand to show him the two dislocated fingers. "Please help."
If he could put her fingers back into the sockets the pain would be considerably less. Then she could worry about clothes and getting back into the QZ, in that order.

Her auburn hair had pulled loose from her braid, looking wild and messy. She was probably dirty and had blood drying on her skin and tank top. The cut on her lip hurt and the purple area under her eye was horrible. She looked a sight. She was surprised he didn't shoot her.

"I'm not infected," she insisted, suddenly realizing that if he thought she was then she might get shot anyway. "I swear. I was kidnapped and beaten for being an RD."
(Resource Distributor)

Daniel - Outside Boston - Alyce

"I'm not gonna shoot you, so keep your panties on." He made sure to keep the barrel of his gun pointed away from her as to not scare her. He dropped to one one knee and slung his rucksack from his shoulder, digging around. He rummaged through until he found pair of black cargo pants in the bottom of the bag and pulled it out. He speculated that they wouldn't fit her and they'd most likely fall, so he unlatched his braided belt. He slowly approached her so he didn't startle her, and handed her the belt and pants. He trudged back to his pack, zipped it, and shouldered it.

He paused a moment. and looked her over. She was pretty, and would have been more so had she not been beaten up and half naked- actually he didn't quite mind the latter fact. "I don't suppose you'd like to tell me if you've got a name?"

Alyce - Outside Boston - Daniel

The relief that he wasn't going to shoot her didn't so much to relieve the pain in her hand.
He provided her with clothes, something she wasn't expecting. It was a struggle to get the pants on one-handed and she winced and cried out each time her hand was jarred. She gave up with the belt. There was no way she could get it on one-handed.
"Please," she begged. "I don't know who or what you are, but please help me," she said, showing him her hand. "Can you pop my... my fingers back into their... sockets?" she asked, wording it was difficult.
"My name is Alyce," she answered his question. Great. It just figured the guy was good looking and she looked like something a truck ran over.

Daniel Crowe - Outside Boston - Alyce

"Yes... I- uh.. I can." Daniel answered, carefully... He nodded as Alyce extended her hand. Daniel had dislocated things before; mainly ankles and arms, and he could reset them without too much difficulty. He hoped for two things; he hoped that setting fingers worked the same way, and he hoped that she wouldn't be to loud when he reset the joint. Daniel slowly gripped Alyce's hand with his right fingers. With a quick motion, he forcefully pulled the fingers away from the joint and upwardly applied pressure. He was pleased to hear the fingers crack as they reset. Right before she screamed, Daniel quickly put his hand over her mouth and let her scream into it.

"Sorry..."

Emma Crowe - Boston Apartment

Emma unlocked the door to the apartment and pushed it inward. "Daniel? I'm back." She proceeded into the kitchen and set down the box of food. "...Daniel?" She called again, waiting for an answer. She sighed, and left the kitchen to the bedroom door, knocking, and then opening the door. "Dude, it's past six- get your lazy-" She looked at his empty bed, and she swore silently. He was gone. I immediately dropped to the floor to look under the bed for his gun. Of course; the gun, too, was missing.

No! He'd said his last run was the final! She swore to herself that she would tell him off when he got back...

Terraline made her way to the outside of the apartment Tobias had told her to go to if she ever needed help. She made her way inside, passing crowds of people, huddling in corners if not in their apartments. He had said his name was Flint or something and he'd help her for a price. Terry hoped this guy liked ration cards. Of course, Toby never imagined she'd think of a stupid idea like this. If she was lucky, he'd smuggle her outside the quarantine... then what? All she had was a crumpled up map with coffee stains to guide her to Pittsburgh. Hopefully if she just kept moving on and surviving she'd make it. Avoiding infected would be the key but she knew that was nearly an impossible task.

Finally she found a door with a sign, which read Flint White, hanging off it. With a deep breath, she knocked on it. She moved backward, nervously twirling her hair. People didn't like kids. Terry wasn't all too young at the age of fifteen but it was young enough to become a burden to someone.

KNOCK KNOCK
All good things never last it seems.
Flint quickly scooped up his handgun and shoved into his waistband before throwing the empty bean can in the trash.
He quickly turned off the radio and hid it under his coat on the side.
Flint walked over to the door and looked through the peephole, noticing a young girl he felt more at ease and soon unlocked the three bolts on the door and opened it.
"I've told you kids before you aren't having my chocolate ration slips, you can beg all you want...." Flint said to Terraline grumpily, looking the girl over.

Terry swallowed. This guy was older and definitely didn't seem to like young people. She'd have to try her luck anyway; it was too late. "I'm not here for any chocolate. My brother's a smuggler and he recommended you to me if I need anything. Does the name Tobias ring any bells?" She glanced up at him. Terry wondered if he was even as good as Toby said he was. "Anyways..."She put her hands in the pockets of her brown coat and shuffled her feet. "I need you to smuggle me out of the quarantine. " Removing a handful of ration cards from her pocket, she finally made eye contact. "What's your price?"

Flint listened to the girl. The name did ring a bell after all.
"Ok come on, we can talk easier in here...." Flint said moving and inviting her in before locking up the door once again.
"Five weeks of ration slips is my usual offer... How far out are you thinking? And who are we meeting with? I want numbers and if I get screwed over I have strong friends who will know who you are"
The last statement was a lie but no-one in a long time had ever tested it.

The girl with the rifle didn't respond and Matt could tell that her finger went to the trigger. Matt knew he was about to get shot, so he decided not to wait anymore. Before the girl could squeeze the trigger, Matt spun around, axe in both hands.

Matt hating killing women, but he had no choice. After finishing her off, he heard a muffled scream. Remembering the wounded person under the shattered wall, he picked up his axe and went over to the shelter. When he arrived, he saw a man about his age, holding hands with a young girl. The girl seemed to be in pain, and the man seemed to be very well armed. Not wanting any trouble, held his hands up in as much of a nonthreatening way as he could.

"I'm not looking for trouble." he told them. "Does she need help? I have some pain killers..."

Cameron
As the quarantine zone came in view Cameron stopped. He was so close to refuge. A place of safety and a place he could get food. Although it wasn’t his home, he could feel a sense of longing as he wished he could find a way in. But with the military men guarding the quarantine zone and without the knowledge of how to enter undetected he knew it was a lost cause. If he waited a few days he might be lucky enough to catch a smuggler make their way in or out and follow the same path they did but since he was without food and his water was running low he wondered if he would be able to make it for that long.

“God, maybe I should have gone back.” Cameron muttered to himself as he thought of the supplies his uncle had. It was dangerous going back and sneaking in and stealing what the men stole from his uncle’s dead body but right now there wasn’t much of a choice. He could stay here and hope he could catch a smuggler entering or leaving the quarantine zone and hope he was near one of the entryways or go back and steal from a campsite that was probably guarded. As he thought about this he could see why hunters and other people would be willing to pillage from others seeing how desperate things could be on the outside. As he thought about it, Cameron wondered if he would be able to do that as well if he had the opportunity. He needed supplies whether he made it in or not if he wanted to survive and even if he made it inside of the quarantine zone he had no ration cards to get anything to eat which would mean he would have to do something sketchy in the first place beyond sneaking into the quarantine zone. He had a gun but and although he knew he couldn’t kill someone with it out of the blue, he wondered if he would be able to threaten someone into giving him something to eat. Under normal circumstances, he would have never thought of doing something like this but he was desperate. But he wondered if he was desperate enough to go along with his plan.

Tia
“Seriously, how did the scope get busted?” Tia mumbled to herself as she looked through the scope of her gun and saw nothing more than shattered fragments of glass. Off in the distance she could see an object coming closer but had no way in telling what exactly it was. She would have thought a car would attract too much attention but the speed the object was moving towards the city was far too fast to someone walking or even a person frantically sprinting towards the city. “I wonder if I found my key out of this hellhole.” Tia said with a smile before packing her belongings and headed downstairs, making sure to take the back route to make sure to avoid the infected she left on the street.

“Hey, going somewhere blondie” A familiar voice said as Tia heard footsteps starting to make their way towards her.

“Bug off before I make you.” Tia said snapping back as a man a few years older caught up to Tia.

“Hey remember, we’re on the same side here.” The man said showing his hands in a non-threatening way. “We work for the same guy remember?”

“I work with a team of one Garret, you should know this by now.” Tia said pulling out her hand gun and held it loosely besides her thigh to show that she was serious. Sure, she helped the Hunters out every once in a while and although she titled herself as a fellow hunter, her ties with them were very loose to the point that her loyalties were often questioned.

“Hey, I saw what you did to Phil.” Garret said stopping in front of Tia. “You know once the word gets out there will be people after you and you’ll need someone to back you up.” She knew that he wanted to go with her and although the two worked together before, going on a mission to find the possible vehicle wasn’t something she wanted to venture with him.

“Yeah, he killed my little mouse I was hunting, he deserved it. Anyways, if I needed protection from a hunter, do you think I’d trust someone that is as close to them as you are? I’d rather pair up with a stranger with no affiliations than you.” Tia said before continuing down the street. She could hear the man behind her yell that she would be sorry for her mistake but took no heed to what he said. She didn’t need to rely on anyone to survive.