Ash Holloway
Location: Arnco Mills Safehouse (E10)
Skills: Leadership, Engineering
The main room was clear, thankfully. For all appearances, nothing of the living nor dead variety had found its way in. Still, the next to zero level of light made things a little interesting. Ash wasn't going to feel quite right until he could get a little (and he did mean
a little) light into the equation somewhere. But first, he needed to get his people inside the relative safety of walls and doors. Handing out tasks that brought them inside was an excellent first step in doing just that. Naturally, he already knew where everything was. He had set a lot of this up himself, or by proxy by delegating it to a Run group that was going to be in the area anyway. So long as the safehouses stood and weren't ransacked by other survivors, their supplies should be okay.
Like any good safehouse in a world infested by walking corpses, the old Newnan crew set this one up with boarded windows, thick cloth over the exterior windows, and even kept a few pieces of furniture on standby, covered with sheets. It was not a good permanent encampment by far, but it would suffice to keep the weather and the Dead off of a group that needed respite. But without some illumination... Well, one thing at a time.
After Riley and Tiffany made their initial sweep of the main room and moved on to the other rooms on the ground floor, Ash tucked away his pistol and quickly retrieved the bags and from the porch outside. Considering the nature of their situation, he made it a point to keep his bow and case of arrows on top of the rest, just in case. This was him at the more gruff and businesslike end of his demeanor. One step at a time: Secure an area quickly, establish a central area of supply, set up the means to defend it. The training he received as a forward engineering officer came in damned handy since this apocalypse started, and remained so now especially.
While the others saw to their own tasks, Ash made sure to do his part. He quickly located a recliner and pulled it from the wall, revealing a section of exposed insulation. He peeled back the pink fibrous sheets, layered between silvery, nonreflective material to reveal a fairly large grey-green box, covered with analog buttons and a single digital readout. He carefully pulled it from its hidey hole and set it upon the seat of the recliner he had just moved. Feeling around, the good Captain almost breathed a sigh of relief as he found a dial toward the top of its faceplate and turned it all the way to the right with an audible clicking sound. A single red-orange light illuminated the area just in front of the recliner, but just barely, giving Ash's features a warming silhouette.
The box itself looked very much like antiquated technology, something leftover from the late 80s or early 90s, but Ash knew better. The relay box was designed to be as analog as possible while still retaining the ability to interface with communication tech and link devices of several different varieties, all while keeping the piece of electronics easy to operate and repair, if need be. Its versatile features aside, Ash was just happy that it worked. He would not have been able to handle working in a repair job that evening. Nodding, Ash cleared his throat and looked upon the device with a sense of small accomplishment. It was something. Feeling around in the hollow that had contained the relay, Ash produced a set of walkies, a battery pack, and three bundles of wires. They were on the right track.
With nothing amiss being reported from his group, Ash risked using his voice a little.
"I need some light over here."
Thalia Carmichael
Location: Eden, Grand Gallery outside of Reception on the left wall, behind a pillar
Skills: Stealth, Survival, Pistol
A partially confused, partially impressed look came over Thalia after she heard the report of a large bore pistol repeating several times before ceasing, followed by the gurgling screams of the locals and sounds of three bodies slumping hard to the floor. She risked a peek to get her bearings and received an eyeful of fresh Edenite corpses where the three she spotted earlier used to be. Thalia's head whipped back around to Alexander, then to the pile of dead guys, and again to Alexander.
"I asked for covah, Mugsy." A rare smile cracked her features.
"But this works okay." It appeared that they had gotten to the part of their adventure where quiet and blades were becoming of less use to their operation, which sadly meant that her own usefulness was flagging. Having a specific zone of competence, even to the point of specialization, made someone marketable. Or it used to, back before dead people started to roam the countryside. Anymore, a lack of broad competence could get you killed. This was a lesson that she had damn near paid for with her life some three or four years ago. Were it not for the survivors in Fairburn, she would have. Lesson learned. She missed her friends in that faux medieval town, and was heartbroken to hear of the death of two people important to her. Deaths for which these people were indirectly responsible.
"Sons of bitches..." she growled, thinking back to James's description of how Bridgette died. At least Astrid showed her axepoint mercy, before succumbing herself.
That thought was enough to break her out of her momentary mental rut.
Even before the Apocalypse, she worked for her uncle's security company. This meant a few things for her earlier education, not the least of which being that she was rated in, and had tons of practice with, small arms. Pistols mostly, in her case. She was firing handguns before she began developing an interest in boys, and while she was not a soldier in the classical sense, Thalia was pretty damned good. There was a room to clear.
Thalia jutted her head into the doorway of what appeared to be a reception room for the barest hint of a second. She overtly caught sight of two men ducked behind what appeared to be a receiving desk, using it for soft cover. Or hard cover. Hell, she didn't know, maybe it was mahogany. Either way, she couldn't reliably put a 9mm bullet through it and aerate the men behind, so another option was necessary. She kind of wished she had some grenades. Would have made it simpler.
The Edenites were waiting for
someone to walk through the door, and gave response with the report of small arms. That was highly counterproductive to her killing them. Highly. And as much as she despised wasting bullets, suppressive fire was needed in this instance. Thalia stuck her new Beretta just inside of the doorway and fired off two rounds blindly at the desk. Whether they hit or not was anybody's guess, but it was enough to make the hostile gunfire cease and, she hoped, the men retreat behind their (possible) mahogany cover. Pressing the advantage, the rogue Gonzalez stepped fully into the room, pausing fire for a half second to see if any whack-a-moles popped up. Calculated risk. They could re-open fire and make her life painfully short. But she knew where they were, they did not know that she was in the room with them. She approached at a solid walk.
Sure enough, one scalp of dark hair began to rise from behind the desk, practically begging for Thalia to insert a bullet at high velocity. She obliged. The guy's partner declined a similar offer with his reluctance to make himself available for immediate execution (demonstrating powerfully bad manners in the process), prompting Thalia to leap upon the desk bodily and put two more of her precious bullets to use.
"Clear." she spoke aloud, mimicking Thana from earlier.
If this was a reception room, then there had to be offices and storage nearby. Maybe the armory was around this place. It was as good a place as any to start.
