[IC] Dead Roads

[Drakeonis]

The dawn broke the horizon bathing the dead city of Blackwall in its light. Illuminated by the light of the dawn, the shambling figures that now resided in the city were now revealed by it. Zombies, the monsters that now ruled the once vibrant city shuffled around the city streets just as they always had and would continue to do. The undead could not feel the chill in the air that had come with this new morning, could not tell the difference between the light of the morning sun and the blackness of the night before. Sensation was lost on these creatures the only thing that drove them was their animal instinct to feed on the living.

Moses inhaled the crisp morning air as he watched the sunrise from St. Walker's rooftop. He found himself doing this a lot watching the sunrise, it reminded him that they had somehow survived to see another day in this hellish world. The sound of bodies colliding against chain caused him to take his eyes from the horizon and look down to the front gate where three zombies clawed at the fence, desperately trying to get inside. He gave an annoyed sigh and fell on to his back. "I chose a horrible time to quit smoking."

[Rusalka]

@Drakeonis

youtube.com/watch?v=GuUVONbrl_w

For Liz, there was never such a horrible day to quit smoking, mostly because she never would, even if the world was going to end in a cannibalistic orgy of death and depravity of the likes never seen.

Society was collapsing all around her, yet here she was on the roof of the school leaning back in a chair and staring up at the sky. Precariously hanging from her lip was a crumpled up cigarette, her third since she got up this morning to make sure everything was in ship shape, locked up tighter than a crab's asshole. The last thing she needed was to wake up to some rotting flesh bucket drooling over her and about to sink their putrid teeth into her face.

It was a particular beautiful morning, well, about the only thing beautiful with how this day was beginning. The sun was just cresting over the far horizon, bathing everything in a soothing warmth counteracting the bitter chill of the frosty Colorado mountain air and painting the skies that were once a dark, ashen gray with vibrant hues and shades of oranges and pinks. Up here on this roof....it felt as though the cold, cruel reality below never existed in the first place, but the groaning and growling of zombies clawing at the metal fence brought that illusion crashing down rather quick.

"Eh, smoke till your lungs are black. That's what I say." Liz shrugged her shoulders putting both arms behind her heads with an exhale of thin white smoke into the misty air. The world was ending, right? Why not have a final joy in life?

Her attention was shortly grabbed by another noise she came to expect in the morning, that of the clopping hooves and shrill neighing of Harley's horse as she raced him around the nearby football field a couple of times, her unmistakable Texas drawl ringing out in the dead silence with a "Giddy up!" or "C'mon boy!". "Well well...looks like Calamity Jane's at it again."

Soon after, Liz heard the horse trotting closer to the building. She glanced down seeing the cowgirl, wearing that stupid hat of hers and waving to her and Moses with a big grin stretching across her face. "Howdy y'all!" Harley called ever so gleeful. God, how could she be so uppity? "Nice mornin', ain't it?" She said smiling all the more, but her expression soured shortly upon seeing the three shambling corpses rattling the chainlink and barbed wire. "Well aside from that." Dryly Harley quipped. By this point, the cowgirl was used to seeing rotting flesh and gore aplenty. It still didn't stop her from feeling sick to her stomach. So much for breakfast. Almost bitterly she sighed tapping her boot against the horse's side and goading him forward. "C'mon Riley. Let's get you back to your pin." The horse trotted along, a gruff snort as he shook his mighty head.

Liz finished off her cigarette standing up and snuffing it out under her foot, stretching and yawning rather audible and scratching the back of her head as she ambled over to Moses. "Well Mosey, I don't know about you man, but I'm ready to kill some fucking zombies today."

[IronWill]

''...''

The lonely footsteps of the scout echoed throughout the hallways of the third floor. The silence of that place annoyed him as he remembered how noisy it used to be, he looked through the windows of the empty classroons, some of them stained in blood.
Scott slowly made his way to the rooftop where his childhood friend was.

''The third floor is clear...''

[Leda]

A loud noise rung in Noah's ear as he lied there with his head on the teacher's desk in one of the classrooms. It was none other than the alarm clock he had kept as a gift to remember one of the other survivors before their unfortunate end. As it rung in his ear, he felt around for it with his eyes still shut until he finally grabbed it and turned it off. His eyes were met with the blinding light of the sun shining through the window as it slowly rose over the mountains. With all that has happened, he always thought it was a miracle that the sun still rose to greet the undead cannibals and whoever was left alive to see it. It would be another few hours before his shift, so he decided it get in another hour of sleep before hand.

[Polaris North]

Alexander held his metal bat on one hand and a baseball ball on the other. He faced the fence. On the other side, a ton of zombies were walking about. Some were sticking their bodies on the fence, trying to claw their way in but failing miserably. He threw the ball upwards and then prepared to strike. He swung and it connected to the ball. It flew over the fence and hit a post nearby, creating a loud sound and attracting the zombies towards that position.

He was once more playing with those things, something he occasionally did when he wasn't outside scavenging what he can or socializing with other teens. "Now that that's over with." He muttered to himself before proceeding to go to a nearby table where a map with multiple cross marks was. He sat down and then took out a marker. It was a map of the area itself and it seems the ones with cross marks meant that there were no supplies there. There weren't too much options left.

They had been scavenging for a month already. Supplies were already short after a while and they had to leave the school to get some more. The ones who are involved in sports club or are sporty leave the school to get stuff to feed the others inside. He sighed before tapping the metal bat multiple times on the ground. It would only be a matter of time where they would be forced to leave lest they would want to die of starvation. He'll let the leader know later on. It was such a wonderful morning, he wouldn't want to break anyone's mood because of this.

[MissCapnCrunch]

It had been a relatively quiet night at the high school, people were already awake or just waking up now as the quiet stirring could be from the roof. Sitting up slowly, Virginia stretched her arms out in front of her, her fingers spread as she reached towards her toes. Nothing like concrete to sleep on to make your body feel twenty years older than it was. Gathering herself off the ground she found her way up to the roof with many of the others, it was kind of the meeting spot for the group. Someplace that they could start the day off with, figuring out what was to come and what had happened the following days.

"Morning." Virginia cooed, softly. Her voice still a bit raspy from the night. She coughed into her arm, clearing her throat a bit before taking a look around the people that had came up already. Such early birds, the people that were rarely on time when school had been in session. She walked forward a bit, bringing herself into the group, her dark eyes peering over the edge to spot the few zombies. Disgusting. You'd think after seeing so many you'd get use to it, but you never truly did.

[Framing A Moose]

Most people start their day by making themselves a pot of coffee, or putting toast in a toaster, or simply pouring themselves a glass of milk. Jane, on the other hand, started her day by pulling a Tupperware container holding a brain out of a medium sized ice chest. A zombie brain to be specific. The main difference of a zombie brain and a human brain was the texture. The zombie brain was stiffer than a human brain. It was almost like stale bread. But she had learned that the zombie brain still worked properly, or rather had the potential to work properly. Finding out how to get the brain working correctly again would be the first step to finding the cure. But for now, she needed more. Suddenly there came the sound of clanking coming from outside. Jane jumped, gasped, and dropped the Tupperware container in suprize. Luckly, it fell back into the ice chest without damage. Jane closed the lid of the chest and walked over to the window, peering out to see three zombies. She let out a nervous sigh and decided it was a good time to ask some of the scouts and scavengers for another sample of a different part of the body. She wasn't sure, but she theorized that the body part she was seeking would help her in her research. But that was only half the reason she wanted to talk to them now. She was scared again, and she didn't want to be alone.

And so Jane left her room before proceeding to make her way to the rooftops, where she guessed at least one of them would be. She got lucky, she would see as she got onto the roof, as there were actually three there. "Ahem." she cleared her throat in attempt to sound professional while still getting their attention. Instead, it came out as shy, mousy, and, to be honest, completely pathetic. "I...I have a bit of a f-favor to ask of you, scouts and scavengers..." she said.

@IronWill@Rusalka@Drakeonis@MissCapnCrunch

[IronWill]

Scott could not continue with his report as Jane appeared asking for a favor. He simply turned his head towards her and nodded waiting for her to say what she needed.
The scout always felt uneasy when near the girl, he knew her dangerous requests were going to get him killed someday...but if she could find the cure then the risk was worth it

[Princeofhearts]

"Come on... Come on, your dirty animal..."

He'd say while staring through his sniping aim, looking at a close Deer running around the yard as if the damn animal was teasing Hunter. You see, if they needed food to survive this, Hunter was the one who went to most areas to hunt for wild animals in order for him to bring them back to the school. As the deer got closer to the school, he quickly got his bow and arrow, drawing the arrow but as soon as he did so, he heard a few zombies coming from the other side of the roof. "Shit.." he muttered before turning around and walking towards that direction. Hunter noticed a full group of people, his friends from highschool. "Okay, I just need to ask one tiny question. If we are going to survive, I need to go outside of the school in order to actually hunt for food. So, do I get permission to leave?" Hunter tilted his head slightly to the leader of the group. He'd spot the zombies moaning and scratching the wall but Hunter was more worried about their surviving problem.

"We cannot be here for the rest of our lives, you know." Hunter spoke before turning his body attention to Jane, he sighed while rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke. "Sure, what's up, Jane?"

[Leda]

Noah slowly opened his eyes after thirty minutes of tossing and turning to get comfortable on the desk. If there was one thing he had a problem with, it was the sleeping arrangements. They had been at this school for at least a month and still it felt like they were barely scraping by, not to mention it seemed like the food source from the spots the scavengers and scouts hit seemed to keep getting a little smaller every week. The boy stretched out at the desk as he looked out the window at the sunrise and then around the classroom, it seemed like just yesterday, he was sitting here worrying about dying of boredom instead of the undead trying to kill him. "Why does it feel like it's going to be a long day" he thought to himself, as he stood up from the desk and rubbed his face trying to wake himself up.

Since it was early, he figured everyone would be on the roof for the daily awkward meet and greet as he called it. The only reason he even showed up was for the announcements of who's doing what and who's going out. It's not like he made an effort to make small talk with the others. He grabbed his rifle and headed for the roof, as he expected most of everyone was already there. Hopefully this would be quick, so he could get on with his watch. He had heard Jane asking the scavengers and scouts for a favor all while trying to sound professional, but failing.

[Rusalka]

@MissCapnCrunch@Framing A Moose@Princeofhearts@IronWill@Leda @Drakeonis

As Harley would probably say, the hens were clucking and waiting on their din-dins.

Liz sighed rubbing the back of her head and fixing the dull gray beanie adorning such before the rest of the group showed up.

The first was Scott, returning from his morning patrol and giving Moses the daily report. "Wilco captain." Liz gave a mocking salute. Then soon arrived Virginia looking like hammered shit. A few nights on cold concrete would do that to you. Still, she looked just as cute to Liz. Liz chuckled at the sight of her tousled blonde locks and just her overall fatigued appearance, "Morning sleeping beauty." Wonder who woke her up? Prince Charming or Maleficent herself?

Once Virginia ambled a little bit closer, Liz seeing the blonde's reaction to the dead gathering out front, another girl arrived on scene. Jane, the resident mad scientist of this motley band of survivors, the Dr. Josef Mengle of the zombie apocalypse. She approached the group carefully, as always trying to keep up an astute and professional demeanor, when really it just made her look to Liz like a cute hipster nerd, instant heartthrob material for the punk rocker. She lit another cigarette, taking a slow drag and exhaling smoke before replying with a shrug to Jane. "Yeah, what's up Jane Doe?" She said yawning and stretching again. She hasn't had much sleep at all since this whole debacle began, and it was starting to take its toll on her. But then again, how can you sleep knowing the next day could be your last....even the next hour? For Jane, Liz figured another fetch quest for research material, hacking off limbs and bringing back globs of gore for the lab rat to analyze thinking she was gonna find some breakthrough miracle and save the world.

As if...

Lastly, the two hunters finally dragged their butts up the stairs to the roof. Hunter, the irony of that name, already on his usual bitchy whine-fests about how the group was running out of food. Like Liz didn't know. They hit every supermarket, convenience store, restaurant, and whatever else in this god forsaken city, and that was just last week. The supply runs were becoming more and more finite each day, yes, but Liz didn't need to hear the constant complaining about it, especially when she hasn't had her morning smoke and her coffee yet.

Calamity Jane followed behind Hunter too, typical of her as well to be the only sunshine in this dark storm of human decay, of bitterness, depression, anxiety, and a whole bunch of other shit words a licensed therapist spouted at Liz once upon a time. The cowgirl, never being one to enter the fray unless needed, plopped her ass down in a chair on the roof, Liz's chair unfortunately, and stretched giving a great, hearty yawn of her own and catching her hat before it fell off. "Lord have mercy! Y'all sure are an antsy bunch today! Y'all sound like a bunch of cows mooing before a big tornado." Harley giggled before hopping to her feet again and joining the group circle. "If y'all ask me, Hunter is right. Food's gettin' hard to find around this here city, and them zombies are getting tougher to fight off. Poor Riley nearly got bit by them bastards. They some ornery little critters, I'm tellin' you." A brief bout of laughter before she resumed turning to the boy, "I can go huntin' with you while Liz and the others go scavegin'. Been a while since I shot me a good whitetail, and there's plenty out there."

"Alright." Liz said with a sigh, taking another drag of her cigarette, cheekily huffing smoke into the cowgirl's face and getting her a nasty look from Harley. "So Patsy Cline here's gonna go shoot some deer with Hunter. The squad and I are gonna jack some more body parts for Jane Doe, and hopefully before the sun sets we don't end up zombie chow. We're running out of places to bury more bodies anyways." A coy jest, but a grim reminder that not only the food was growing short...but the morale. If it wasn't for Harley always keeping an upbeat attitude, albeit annoying to Liz, then this whole ship of fools would be sinking in the whirling seas of blood and guts below them. "We just gotta get the big boss' word before we go out cracking skulls first." She added while turning to Moses, an expectant pause with her arms crossed and an eyebrow cocked.

For a while, Harley kept silent. Liz always being the negative nancy, it was like the rocker wanted to put a dent in her cheerful demeanor, or at least set out to. She sighed stretching her arms behind her back, groaning a bit as sleeping on hay and hard ground hasn't done her back much favor. The same could be said for the cute blonde across from her, Harley's blue eyes sparkling bright upon noticing her. "Hey Virginia!" She smiled scooting over to Virginia and giving her a friendly hug. "Well, don't you look like you been through hell and back! Still just as cute as a baby chick! Golly, we didn't think you was ever gonna wake up. How you feeling, girl?"

Noah joined the group later, Liz really paying him no mind but getting a greeting from Harley, "Howdy Noah! Glad you could join us." A smile and a wave she gave the shy boy. A bit of a weird fellow he was to the cowgirl, but didn't mean she had to treat him like stigma. It pegged Harley as something funny though, Noah and Moses, both Biblical names. Well if anyone was gonna see them out of this trainwreck of society, it would have to be the good Lord above....or Liz if they pissed her off enough.

[Framing A Moose]

Jane opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a couple more people joining them on the group. As they talked, Jane wanted to interrupt them, to finish what she was saying, but her shy, timid personality didn't let her. Finally, when it seemed like she could cut in without being rude. "Um, e-excuse me. I-I need something specific this time...I need..." She paused and took a shaky deep breath. "I need a...a s-stomach, from...one of the sick people." She had always refused to call them zombies.

@Rusalka@Leda@Princeofhearts@IronWill@MissCapnCrunch@Drakeonis

[Kurai Assassin]

Jess sat alone in the science labs as she used to do before the apocalypse, she was quite fond of science and was probably the most academic of the group that had held up in the school so she decided to test out a few things to maybe try and make a zombie trap or a weapon that could take out multiple zombies at once. "Hmmm? maybe Potassium and Water could do it? How much potassium do we have? one jar left damnit. it'll have to do" she got a jar and filled it with water, place a small piece of card so that it could balance some potassium on it until the sheet was pulled away by some string, she would have about 5 seconds to throw the jar before the explosion went off. "I've got it! I've finally got it"she exclaimed running up the stairs towards the roof where she knew Moses went in the morning. As she made it to the roof she noticed everyone stood around looking at the zombies by the gates. "Guys, guys. ive finally got it, a way to clear the zombies by the gates so we could possibly get out with a vehicle, if we can find a vehicle that is. Look"she held up the jar with the potassium in it "watch what happens" She pulled the string which released the potassium and waited 3 seconds before throwing it into the crowd of zombies. just before it hit the ground it exploded killing atleast 4 zombies covering the others in glass from head to toe. "now imagine that on a larger scale and planted by the gates"

[Drakeonis]

@Princeofhearts@Framing A Moose@Kurai Assassin@Rusalka@IronWill@Leda@MissCapnCrunch

Moses let out a small laugh before finally bringing himself to his feet. "Certainly no rest for the wicked is there?" Not that he was surprised though every day in this hell was busy. He removed a crumpled up pack of gum from his pocket, took a piece out and popped it into his mouth. He chewed on the gum as he listened intently to all the information being directed at him. He tapped his fingers against the rooftops railing partly to keep his fingers busy, partly as a thinking exercise. The food situation Hunter brought up was nothing new to hear, in fact their supply of basically everything was running low: food, ammunition, and they still needed vehicles. If Hunter thought he could alleviate the first of their worries then he would agree with it, and with Harley backing him up he had less to worry about. "Alright I'm cool with it. Hunter and Harley will go hunting but..." He looked the both of them dead in the eyes. "Just be careful alright? I don't need either of you dying on me."

He turned his attention to Jane. "A stomach? You sure that'll help?" He was skeptical about this whole working towards a cure thing. Sure Jane could pull off some crazy Frankenstein-level shit, but curing this possibly world-wide epidemic with the resources of a high school chem lab seemed impossible even to his idealistic mind. Still it's not like they didn't need to go out anyway, and they'd definitely be dealing with zombies when they did so might as well humor the idea. Hell maybe she'd actually cure the damn thing. "Alright we'll get it done. By the way, whats our medicine stock looking like?"

While he waited for a response, Jess showed clearly excited about...something. "Um, could you slow down a bi-" She had already tossed the homemade bomb before he finished speaking and the explosion cut him off. He stared at the place were the zombies had been at the gate, and the ones that were now dead-dead. "Okay that was cool as shit, but now we have the whole extra noise of a small explosion that's just going to draw more of them to gate. Y'know the exact opposite of what we want?"

The gate was more of an annoyance but that noise would definitely bring more to it soon. Meaning they had to get moving on all these plans before that happened. "Alright we're already clear on what Hunter and Harley are doing. Liz, Scott, Virginia, and I will pull the scavenging/zed stomach retrieval mission. Noah will stay here on Lookout, Jess I'm going to need you to come up with a less loud method of clearing the gates." He spat his gum over the side of the roof, and turned to everyone gathered. "Everybody good and clear with what they're doing?"

[Kurai Assassin]

"Ok yeah, got it. didnt take the noise factor into account. Gimme some time and ill have a better escape out of here. Oh while your out could one of you get some painkillers and see if you can bring some metal sheets back."She smiled and walked away. Damn, maybe a violent reaction wasnt the way to clear the gate maybe, she should just distract them and pull them away from the gate. She stepped pack into the lab and set to work. Should she pick bright lights or Sparkle and Crackles. The sparkle and crakles seemed the best idea seen as it was bright lights coupled with an intense crackling. She would need NaK alloy, luckily she had enough Potassium left to make the alloy, but using it meant they could only make five 'flares' out of it, she would have use the jar idea again but without the blast. The NaK alloy would sparkle and crackle leaving the students to evacuate using Jess's 'pet project'.

[Varicke]

@Kurai Assassin@Drakeonis

Kyre was just running up to the roof after hearing the explosion, kicking the door open. He was carrying a marker and a photo of one of the school's principals with a crudely drawn moustache on it, clearly evident that he was in the middle of something. "What was that!? Are we under attack!? Do the zombies have explosives now!? Oh GOD, we're never gonna get out of here now!" He's always been the dramatic one of the group with acting that would make anyone roll their eyes.

[IronWill]

"Woah woah wait. Are we really going for the stomach? If professionals weren't able to find the cure what makes you think a high school girl can...-"

What Scott was about to say was obvious but refrained from doing it when she looked at Jane, maybe his worlds could hurt her feelings or something so he just stood silent and just sighed.

"Alright...I will gget my things ready...Anyway we still have to clear some parts of the school...specially the infirmary and teacher's room. The problem with this is that the second and first floor have ramps for wheelchairs the zombies can use. The third floor safe exactly because it doesn't have ramps."

[Princeofhearts]

@Rusalka

"Alright, cool." he'd nod at Harley before grabbing his bow and heading out of the door before coming into a halt, turning his head slightly to the leader as he chuckled while shaking his head. "You will not loose us. I mean, I'm like the best hunter in this group. No offense to the others, just speaking the truth." he'd nod to himself before turning towards Harley and giving her a smile. "Let's go Harley Quinn. We have some hunting to do!" and with that Hunter walked out of the roof and headed down the stairs where he would find a few things on the ground. "Pick anything that you think will help us out while we are outside." Hunter spoke in a serious tone of voice as he grabbed a pocket knife, his quiver for the arrows and a pistol just in-case. He left his rifle so there wouldn't make much noises or else could potentially attract a horde of zombies.

As he walked outside, the parking lot for the school was empty but he did notice a deer up ahead. "Shit. Yo, look. I tried to get that damn deer but it escaped earlier. You ready for this Harley?" he'd ask while looking at the deer as he loaded up an arrow.

[Drakeonis]

@Varicke@IronWill
"Metal sheets, painkillers, and a zombie stomach. This is turning into the world's strangest grocery list." Moses joked. "But If I see any I'll be sure to grab 'em."

"One thing at a time Scotty. While our unfriendly roommates are totally something we need to deal with, lets worry about getting this done first okay?" He looked at him with a serious gaze. "And you don't have to do this stomach thing if you don't want to. I won't think any less of you if you'd rather not risk your life for something like this. That goes for everybody."

As soon as Kyre showed up continuing on with his usual tendency to over dramatize everything, Moses immediately reached for his temple. "Good morning Kyre." He sighed loudly even Moses who was super idealistic and accepting of everyone had a difficult time dealing with Kyre's personality and combined with the constant irritation he was feeling thanks to his trying to quit smoking did not make the other boy any easier to deal with. "No the zombies do not have explosives, Jess was just showing off an explosive she made. Can we please not play this game right now?"

[Varicke]

@Drakeonis@IronWill

"Oh don't be such a sour puss, in times like these games are the best you can hope to have!" His grin betrayed any hint of maturing any time soon. He was odd, weird and possibly even a psychopath. He was an annoying little idiot, but he was their annoying little idiot. His expression returned neutral as he glanced around at the others preparing to do their assigned chores. It looked as though he missed their typical morning meeting again. He usually made an effort not to show up, often being too tired or just not in the mood to do anything. The sound of getting a stomach from one of the zombies sounded like fun though. "Can I come too?" eager to help with anything that involved a particularly gruesome or morbid outcome was something the group has basically grown use to with him at this point, even if he still wasn't exactly on the best of terms with them. "Come on. I'll let you kill it. Pretty please?" It's not like he would've taken no for an answer, but he's been trying to be a little more well behaved by at least asking anyway. Sure he may have almost gotten them all killed about a month ago with that one particular zombie he tried to keep as a pet, but he did apologise.... sort of.

With many nuclear power plants around the world having long overheated and failed due to a halt in maintenance since the infection spread, many major cities have become inhabitable due to the radiation. Luckily Blackwall managed to sidestep that danger with their use of turbines, but the winds still spread the radiation globally. With the rains however, the potential threat of radiation poisoning has decreased, but Kyre still believes it's best for them to avoid the major cities if they plan on leaving Blackwall. They've been stuck in the same spot for too long and may be able to last a while longer, but he did want to eventually leave and check out what he likes to call 'prison island.'