[IC] Like I'm Gonna Lose You [post apocalyptic]

[Benzaiten]

Jasmine Debnam-Carey

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The cold pouring rain had stopped and the sun had come out again. Jasmine couldn't be happier about that beautiful fact. Her son didn't like rain at all. Jace had been crying all the time, but now he was happy again. The pouring rain on his shoulders was forgotton and he was jumping around pretending to ride a horse. Jasmine was lucky to have her both children with her. Others didn't have this luck.

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The little boy with his curly went jumping around and happily made horse noises. He didn't know what was going on yet. He didn't know that there was nothing left of his old life. His mother smiled sadly. She was afraid that the time he realized that would come too soon.
Her gaze went down to her baby girl lying on her arms making no sound. Big brown eyes were looking up into her own green ones and she smiled. "Hello, little Mila." The baby girl blinked at her. She hoped although the world was ashes, that her little children would grow up with happiness and joy.

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She watched her son play and although things seemed bad, she was positive that they would survive. She was here to help them survive and she would never let anything bad happen to those pure hearted angels.

[Flightless_Soul]

Candace Marie Prescott

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Diary Entry 1: The New Wild West

Three days....

That's how long it's been since the calamity, and how long I have traveled on foot. My feet are sore, and these old boots aren't helping either. My throat...it's so dry. I was able to collect a few drops of rain, just a sip it was to quell this wretched thirst, but still... I continue to walk down the road, a desolate, damaged stretch of empty highway...well aside from all the mangeld and burned up cars everywhere. I look into one of the windows, and...I can't believe what I'm seeing. Four bodies, all charred, all blackened, some...already losing their skin. It's...a family, a mom, a dad, and two little kids. They didn't die during the bombings, no...they would've been vaporized in an instant. If anything, a wreck is what killed them. But....maybe being burned alive or dying in a wreck is a better way to die....than slowly decaying...in this dying world. I show no emotion towards the grisly scene, my face doesn't budge at all. On the inside though, my stomach is turning in knots. I feel like I'm gonna throw up.

The rain stopped finally, but it still feels cold. Maybe it's just me....maybe I've grown cold.

God....why did this all happen? And...why am I alive?

A sigh passes my lips and I continue onward. I can't go home. There's nothing left. So, I keep pressing forward. The next town, it's just a few feet ahead, and I desperately need more supplies. Ugh...my stomach keeps growling. It's getting annoying, this sharp, bitter pain in my gut. I haven't eaten anything in a while, just a nasty can of cold beans I could barely keep down. I didn't sleep that much either last night. I couldn't shut my eyes. I was just...too afraid to...

Please...let me make it to the next town. Hopefully let me find a place, an old house or even some abandoned building, somewhere I don't have to be outside at the mercy of everything.

[MissCapnCrunch]

---

Virginia Henning

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A bright yellow backpack was sitting in the lap of the young woman. A barely standing building held a little shelter from the rain. Virginia couldn't believe that just 3 days ago life had been relatively normal. Now there was nothing but disaster and stress. She had hope to find her mother soon in the wreckage, but as the days went by she felt more and more hopeless towards her goal. As the sun came out, the girl decided it was time to get back into her travels. She stood up and threw her backpack onto herself adjusting it on herself as she started walking down the road.

[Shoe Thief]

Hunter Monroe

Hunter weakly walked his way down the old roadway, his pump action still still in his hands. Fearing how people react when in times like this he never seemed to let go of it. Sometimes he wished he wasn't so scared of what people could do, then maybe he would have set down the gun in his hands for a bottle of water. Food would be nice, but water was the big thing he was worried about right now. His body felt weaker and weaker with every step he took.

After hours of walking he came across a gas station. The place seemed pretty rough, but it was his best chance at finding water. Though the building itself looked in worse condition then the road it was on. Hunter slowly crept his way past the wrecked cars, if need be he could check later for one that worked. But now he needed water. With the windows and doors shattered he just walked his way in with his gun raised. "Hello? Anyone Home?" He looked around for a moment making sure the place was clear. And as for people, it seemed clear. Though that seemed to be the same for supplies. The shelves were ransacked, hard to say when, but with nothing left really he was going to have to search long and hard for something other then broken glass and dirt.

Hunter eventually found a broken bottle of Gatorade. Only had a few sips inside of it, but this would also be the only thing he has drank today. He set down the shotgun and placed it on the counter as he started drinking the energy drink. He finished it like there was no tomorrow, which with out this it may be. He looked at the broken piece of plastic in his hands. "So, this is my life now huh? Good thing I spent all those years in my sucky schools for this." He laughed a bit before standing up. Everything was so empty, so... dead. He was starting to wonder if he was more scared of people finding him or of him never seeing another person again.

[Always]

(( may I join this?))

[jeroukoo]

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Jason Michael Lee

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Another bust... He kicked the grocery store isle's shelf. His bars and jerky supply was running low, and his concern for food was rising. He knew of another grocery store that was tucked away in his town, maybe they would have some more canned supplies. He was lucky that he had planned to go on a hiking trip before this all went down and that his favorite foods were beef jerky and granola bars.

She wasn't as lucky... Tears started to well up in Jason's eyes, but he was quick to wipe them away. Come on, move on Jason. Past's the past. Worry about now. Jason headed back out of the grocery store and stretched his arms out behind his back with his bat. He couldn't let his emotions weigh him down as he was journeying in the apocalypse. It wasn't the kind he would have imagined, though. No zombies, no rampant violent gangs, no one pointing him at gun point for food. It was just normal people, trying to scrape by with what they could manage. He had shared his fair amount of granola bars and received fair compensation, but there was never really any imminent threat trying to kill him.

In all honesty, though, Jason would have preferred a world filled with violence, to give him an excuse not to live anymore. He sighed, tapping his bat against the pavement he was walking on, creating a loud ting for everyone around to hear.

[Benzaiten]

Jasmine Debnam-Carey

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Jasmine felt her stomach growl. She knew her children would want to eat soon too. Her son was not a picky eater. She was glad about that. He'd eat anything she'd serve them and in the apocalypse she couldn't thank him enough for that. But her daughter would need baby food. Although she still had some baby food in that old backpack she found on the streets a few days back, she knew she would have to get more soon. Especially since in this world people wouldn't hesitate to grab baby foodfor themselves. Humans were selfish, that was their nature.

Jas opened her backpack that lied on the dirty ground close to her. She had thought ahead when she first got food. She grabbed the things that would last long first and had stuffed them into the huge backpack. Then she had grabbed those things that wouldn't last long and had made meals with them first. She wouldn't let anything go to waste.

She wished she knew how to hunt. She wished she knew how to build traps. But she didn't. She dearly hoped someone would team up with them. Someone trustworthy. Jasmine wouldn't make it on her own. And it's only been several days so far.

"Mommy I'm hungry." As expected her son was feeling hungry too. And her daughter would need something too.

Jasmine nodded. "We still have some bread."

The boy was fully covered by mud. He enjoyed playing in the dirt and his clothes have long lost their actual colors. "Do we have noodles? Can we make noodles?"

"No." The mother shook her head. She did have noodles. But she didn't think she wanted to try to boil river water with some self made fire yet. "Please eat the bread. It's not much anymore but it needs to be eaten before it goes to waste."

The child didn't argue any longer. His mother gave him some bread and a bottle with water. She handed her son a can of peanut butter.

The boy was happy to have peanut butter to dip his bread into. This little boy was sure loving his peanut butter.

Jasmine looked over to the city, she could see the damaged road through the trees but that's about it. She would go to the grocery store again.

"Jace", the young woman spoke up. "Hold your sister please." She placed the baby between the boys legs and got up. Jace knew how to hold his sister. They'd been playing together since her birth. The boy wrapped one arm around the baby while he dipped by is finger into the peanut butter and pit his finger to her mouth. "Mama I share", he proudly announced.

"Great baby." Jasmine took the backpack and hid it by one of the trees. She had digged a hole to hide it in and pushed a huge rock over it. Moving the rock was a hard task every time again. It took her several long minutes to place it correctly so the hole wouldn't be seen. But it was worth it.

Jasmine wiped her face after the rock was in place. "We have to get some food for Mila. With some luck there's some milk for you."

"Why can't we take the milk?"

"It wouldn't last long in that pack pack honey. And I'm not wasting space on milk. You can drink it in the store if we find some useful milk." She sat down next to her son. "We will go once you finished the bread."

[jeroukoo]

---

Jason Michael Lee

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And if I take a left here, that should get me to the town square and then we go onto Maple street... Jason took his turn and stopped, seeing a little boy playing in some puddles on the street. Jason initial reaction was to put up his bat at the sign of something else. He quickly lowered the bat out of confusion, as he hadn't seen any children post bombing, let alone one that was happily playing in puddles. Jason guessed the boy had been playing for a long time, due to the fact he was covered in mud. Jason kept quiet and watched the boy, until he stopped his playing and walked out of the puddles. A woman appeared, holding a small child in hand. The boy said something, and the woman pulled out some bread and a jar of peanut butter.

A whole family? Jason was bewildered that a family unit had survived the bombing. That's really lucky. I wonder how they survived together. Jason hadn't realized he had crept further out from the cover he was hiding behind, leaving himself exposed for the family to see.

[Shoe Thief]

Hunter Monroe

When thrown into a stressful situation, you really learn what people will do to survive. What people will do to one another for something as simple as a bottle of water, for a granola bar, for some bread. And well holding that shotgun in his hands Hunter was in a moment where he was about to find out what he would do just to survive. He saw the woman give the young child the bread, there was another child who also looked healthy. It was hard to say how much food they had, but Hunter didn't have any at all. He was a decent shot, he could take them all out in seconds, so fast that no one would even know what had hit them. He was still strong enough to handle the gun in his hands, another day or two with out eating and maybe he wouldn't be. Another day or two he may be dead of dehydration.

He raised the shotgun, taking aim at the mother first. But the moment he braced the gun against his shoulder he about threw up. His body froze as the firearm hit the ground. What kind of person was he becoming where he was willing to shoot a family just for a meal, with children so young. And he was about to kill them all. Was it even what he was becoming now? What if he was already this new kind of person? He picked up the gun and threw it over his shoulder. "Excuse me miss? Everything okay?" He tried to speak in a non threatening tone. Which was hard to say how well it was working, he was still panicked about his actions, and he had two guns on his back at the moment. Considering she seemed unarmed it was hard to say how she would react to him walking up to her.

[Benzaiten]

Jasmine Debnam-Carey

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Jasmine heard a voice approach her. She grabbed her son by his clothes and basically threw him behind herself. She held onto her daughter.
The guy was armed and looked weak. She was sure he'd rob them. If not worse.
Jasmine slowly raised her head and put on a confident voice.

"You want to put down all your weapons."

Jasmine had a gift. She could make people do simple things by just putting on a certain voice. She had been called a lot of things because of it. Mostly Satan, Demon or Devil.

Jasmine watched the guy closely. He seemed to want to harmonize but she wouldn't simply trust anyone.

Once again the woman wished that she wasn't alone. She wished someone was there to give her strength. And she wished she had more skills than making people do simple things.

[jeroukoo]

---

Jason Michael Lee

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Another figure crept into Jason's sight, this one male and a lot more threatening. It was mostly due to the two firearms on his back, and from the looks of it they weren't anything puny. All he could make out from their shape is that they were definitely not handguns, the man was definitely packing heat. Someone Jason would want to avoid, preferably. The guy walked to the woman, said something, and the woman stepped forward, exchanging her own words.

They're distracted... Jason thought, beginning to creep alongside the building he was hiding behind. I can make my way past them, without being noticed. Just gotta quiet, and hope they don't see me.

[Shoe Thief]

Hunter Monroe

Well, if she was armed she would have drawn her weapon by now, unless she was waiting for Hunter to drop his weapons. He wanted to seem non threatening, but he was truthfully scared. During training some of his unit members would talk about people in riots or in other bad situations. "How about we compromise." He took the shotgun off his back and pumped it several times until all the shells had been ejected from the firearm. He grabbed the shells that fell and put them in his pocket, then placed it back onto his back. "I don't know who you are, I don't know if you're alone, I don't know if you're armed. What I do know is that I am armed and you have kids. Shotgun's not loaded now, the rifle is, but I'd have to remove the shotgun from my back before I could the rifle, and even at that the bolt on that thing is slow as hell. I mean so slow, like I think a turtle could cross the street faster." He said with a smile. He was exaggerating a bit, but he was trying to lighten the mood a bit. "If it helps, I'm a soldier. I took an oath to serve and protect..." He hesitated for a moment. "I already screwed that up once, maybe this is my chance to fix that?" He said with an awkward smile on his face. "And also your baby is really adorable, even more adorable then my ex's baby. That was also a cute baby as well, despite not having my awesome looks."

[Benzaiten]

Jasmine Debnam-Carey

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Jasmine kept her eyes on the man in front of her. She's suspicious. "My name is Jasmine." The mother of two wanted to trust him, wanted to not be alone in this stinky new world anymore. "This is Mila. And this is Jace." She nods towards the little boy, who's peeking out from behind his mom's legs. His eyes lie on the guns, big and round. He doesn't know how to react. All of this is new to the boy, he isn't familiar with this kind of danger.

[Shoe Thief]

Hunter Monroe

Well, he seemed to be gaining their trust. Which Hunter felt guilty about because a moment ago he was debating on killing them for their food. He felt like shit for thinking like that, for getting desperate enough to have to think like those he had encountered. "Well Jasmine, Mila and Jace, it's a pleasure to meet you all." He did a really poor bow to the family. Then leaned himself back up. "Name's Hunter. And you all got lucky today, too many people if they were in my shoes would have taken the shot on you." He turned to face the store. "Might not have much, if anything. But if it has something we should be good. And it has a lot more cover out here." He turned to face Jace. "Cover we can use to avoid the real bad guys." He said smiling.

But he thought about the store a bit. How many other people have thought the same thing? There was always a chance of people inside, always. Maybe that was why the family was out here instead of inside a place they didn't know. "Look, I'm gonna go see what I can find inside the store here. Come if you want, or don't. But I am pushing my luck with what I have left." He looked Jasmine in the eyes. "I may need to load the gun again, I promise I won't use it on you or your kids, but there's no telling if there are any people inside. And if there are people there's no way of telling how they will react to my handsome face upstaging them." He said calmly before heading to the store.

[Benzaiten]

Jasmine Debnam-Carey

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Once the man turned to leave for the store, her son whispered, "Is the man bad?" Still thinking that when people do not look at you, they do not hear you. Jasmine didn't leave Hunter out of her eyes. But what good did it do watching him? She had no weapon on her and basically no protection whatsoever. If he wanted to, he could still harm them, kill them, rob them. And she would only sit and hold her children. I am weak.

Finally turning her head to her blonde son, she gave him a reassuring smile. "I don't know. Sometimes bad people hide behind a good face." That answer did not, by any means, please the three-year-old. He was confused. Is the man bad or good now? The little boy reached up, pulling on his mother's arms. "Give me."

"You can speak in full sentences, Jace." But Jasmine knelt down nevertheless, handing him his precious beloved little sister and carefully moving him to a sitting position.

Jace held the little girl in his arms, his face was serious and Jas wished for nothing more than for her three-year-old son to be a three-year-old again. "I p'tect you, Mila", he said.

[Shoe Thief]

Hunter Monroe

Hunter heard the Jace ask if he was a bad man. Hunter kept walking but he truthfully didn't know the answer himself. He wanted to be a good man, but he was worried the stress of everything going on was turning him into someone that he didn't want to be. Hunter eventually made it inside the store where he finally loaded the shotgun. He didn't want to do it in front of the family. They were already scared enough of him. He didn't spend long in the store, but the amount of time he did spend proved that he like everyone else was desperate for something to drink. He found a bunch of loose edible things, but nothing that could could hopefully drink from. Eventually he decided he was going to die without something to drink at this point. He was already weak from dehydration, and only getting weaker.

Hunter walked into the restrooms to find them even worse then the rest of the store. All the sinks and toilets were either destroyed or were so unsanitary he would get even worse trying to get water from them. He kept exploring. Soon he found a maintenance area, those usually had access to sinks, or even ice machines. Something had to still have water. He attempted to open the door, locked. He set down the shotgun and he tried to ram in down. That failed. After a couple tries he lost his patience. He was out of breath, his mouth dry, he was losing his mind. He wasn't going to survive this long only to die from not drinking enough water.

Hunter picked up his shotgun and took aim at the door. One way or another he was going to get in. But he hesitated. If he fired the gun and the family was still close by what would they think? Would they think he killed someone? Would they think he would try to kill them? He can't really blame them if they did though. He wasn't sure if Jasmine saw Hunter aiming at her, but he did. "FUCK!" He screamed as he started beating the door with his gun. Before long the handle came off, letting the door open with ease. Hunter stood for a while before he had enough in him to look though the maintenance section of the store. Soon enough, he found what looked like a shower with a hose on it. He turned it on and let the water flow for a moment. At first it was brown and in no way sanitary, but before long it started to clear up. By no means perfect but, water. He started drinking all he could, until he couldn't drink anymore. He started looking around for something to hold more in. Chances are this was only water left over in the pipes, the pluming right now was in poor condition, but the water was all he cared about.

Hunter grabbed a bucket and started filling it. After it was filled he grabbed his shotgun and put it on his back again. Even though he didn't pull the trigger when he spotted the family, he knew that there was a good chance he would have. Especially if he hadn't had luck in finding the water. He did the best run he could do, he was going to make up for his wrongs. If the family was still close he could try and make sure they had enough. Even if they decided to not be near him, the water was the least he could do for what he had done.