[IC] Dead Roads

[Kurai Assassin]

@Varicke
"In the nicest way possible, your not driving us. we need someone who knows the surrounding areas for us to even have a chance of leaving. As for Alcatraz, lets think one day at a time ok. Even if its not been overrun by the undead then the army stationed there may have gone rogue or it could be raiders or criminals or literally anything. Look in all fairness I know Moses is trying to be all it will get better and shit, but its alot easier to assume the worst and dont get close to anyone. You assume the worst you dont feel like shit when its not as you expect. you dont get close to anyone..." she looked at the corpse in the corner "... you dont have a problem putting them down if their infected. Now you can start by helping me tear the seats out, so we can make this more of mobile base than a school bus."

[Princeofhearts]

@Rusalka

"Good choice."

Hunter nodded at his friend before quickly drawing an arrow and aiming towards the deer that was eating grass from the ground. As he was about to shoot the arrow, he thought about what Harley said and the deer being a mother. Hunter stared at the animal for a second before slowly lowering his bow down and turning over to Harley. "Let's just get out of here before I change my mind." he grunted before turning around and walking back towards the other group members. Hunter knew that it was their only way to have some dinner for the night but instead he decided to let the deer go. "That doesn't mean that I won't kill the next animal I see." he added while walking away but slowly so Harley could follow.

[Polaris North]

@Drakeonis@Drakeonis@Rusalka

"Then I put my trust on you, boss." Alexander said, putting on hand on Moses's shoulder before dropping it. "But don't think we can fill up the lot. A lot of these cars we saw are damaged." He said before gesturing beyond the fence. There were many cars out there, hopefully at least four cars were functional or one bus would be. Those would be ideal but it wasn't like his hopes could turn into reality just because he wants to.

He then looked at the pairing, Liz and Jane. The two were acting weird somehow but he wasn't sure why. He was oblivious like that. However, Jane did ask a question and, although he doubts he would be going as well since someone has to hold down the fort, he felt the obligation to answer it. "When someone's experienced enough and if the conditions are right, we split up at one point but we're never too far from each other. Usually by pairs though." He explained. "But since you're just a beginner, I'd recommend going as just one group." He continued to explain. Or at least, that's what they usually do when there are two scavengers and then two scouts, with the pairs being one scavenger and one scout. But this was an inexperienced person so the same rules can't apply lest they want to get in trouble.

[Varicke]

@Kurai Assassin

He was a little upset at not being able to drive and almost chose not to do as he was told out of spite. He groaned and reluctantly stepped into the bus bringing out his switch blade and cutting into a seat to expose the metal inside that was holding it in place and started taking it apart. Luckily it didn't take as long as it looked like it would've and he tossed the pieces out of a broken window into the garage before moving onto the next seat.

[MissCapnCrunch]

"I...I have a bit of a f-favor to ask of you, scouts and scavengers..."

The petite voice of Jane barely made a dent in the air of the other people, "Poor thing." Virginia thought to herself as she watched the girl shake like a leaf. Maybe at one point the girl would find her confidence, but until then she was just a dwelling lab mouse. Regardless, Virginia nodded, agreeing to take whatever journey the group had to go on today.

"Morning sleeping beauty."

The girl's nose scrunched up with smirk as Liz gave her two cents towards the appearance of the girl, "And to you, sunshine." she teased, her palm reaching up and rubbing her eye sleepily. She was still adjusting to all of this. Everyone was. She parted her lips to speak again to Liz but Harley began with her excited voice. "Hey Virginia!" the grin could make the most darkest of souls reconsider their choices. Before she knew it, she was wrapped up in her warm arms. It was an appreciated gesture during this time, that was for sure. "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?" Harley commented and Virginia let out a small laugh, "Wow...you sure know how to make a girl feel good about herself." she remarked dryly, pushing the girl away in a playful manner and sticking out her tongue, bright and pink against her pale complexion.

Plenty of people were awoken now, plans being made and executed. Bombs being exploded and people yelling. Nothing new, but always a surprise. Without much more to it, Virigina took her leave from the room and into the room where she shared with a couple of the girls and emptied out her backpack of the extra clothes she had kept from gym class. Keeping the water bottle and knife inside, she closed the backpack and placed it on her back and posted herself around the front door waiting the team to eventually ensemble. Her tummy grumbling with a sense of hunger, the comments of how low they were on food, dancing around her mind.

[Rusalka]

youtube.com/watch?v=VzMa8eU15QQ

@Framing A Moose@Drakeonis@Polaris North

"Pretty much what bat boy said." Liz nodded giving her two cents to Jane's posed question. "Since you're a newbie, Jane, we'll stick by you and make sure our mad doctor's safe and sound. Besides, you'll get to see some badass zombie killing from yours truly." At that she added a rather confident smirk. Been a while since she's felt the shock and the vibration of her crowbar smashing a zed's skull to pieces or bashing their ribcage into tiny little bone fragments sticking out of the meat. She couldn't deny she loved killing zombies; besides she never had a care for them when they were human once. Speaking of her crowbar, she snatched it up from beside the chair she was in earlier and gave it a twirl before resting it on her shoulders. Just like any bullies that wanted to mess with Jane, any zombie, bandit, thug or whatever was gonna get a beatdown courtesy of Liz. "We'll probably hit up one of the locations we haven't ransacked yet, like that pharmacy on east street. They probably still have some medicine left. Don't you think, bat boy?" She said turning to Alex, their star athlete. He's the one who kept up with this shit after all. Liz was just in it for the fun. Besides...it kept her mind off things....things she didn't want to think about.

@Princeofhearts

Harley frowned lowering her head. Happy that the doe got to live another day, yes, another day to nurture her young and take care of them....but still she felt bad for disappointing Hunter. Even in his position, she just couldn't bring herself to do it, to kill an animal and not realize she could have been taking away someone dear to another. The pain she knew all too well....and didn't want to inflict upon anyone else, human or animal. "Come on Riley....looks like no deer chili for us tonight..." She sighed petting the horse behind his flicking ears, Riley giving a light neigh and shaking his head before trotting along to catch up to Hunter.

It was a short walk back to the schoolyard, but how long it seemed to drag on for Harley, mostly the bitter silence between her and the boy. She didn't mean to piss him off like that. She just...she just didn't want him killing that mama deer.

"Hunter..." She whispered while following beside him on Riley. "Look I....I didn't mean to make you mad. I just.....well, I mean do you really wanna put someone else through the same kinda pain we've been through? Losing their mama or their daddy? What if they did have babies? They'd be alone out there, alone in this world gone straight to Hell..." Her voice trailed off for a moment, Harley's eyes misting a bit. She wiped the tears away before they could fall, just taking a deep breath to calm herself down. She hated thinking about it. Thinking about all she had lost....all the people she once knew and loved...either dead or turned into one of those shambling creatures. Just the thought alone pained her heart something fierce, a sharp, burning sting in the middle of her chest that wouldn't go away. "Anyways..." Harley resumed. "If you wanna shoot the next deer...I guess you can. I ain't gonna stop you again."

[Drakeonis]

@Polaris North@Rusalka@Framing A Moose

"I wouldn't worry about it though, you've got Liz's personal protection after all." Moses added to Jane. "I'd take notes too, girl's an artist at what she does." It was no secret that Moses held a deep contempt for the zombies and delighted in killing them whenever the chance arrived. Walking abominations that made a mockery of life deserved no pity. Still, he doubted that even a fraction of that compared to Liz though. "Anyway the pharmacy sounds like a plan. Anything else near there worth clearing out?" He asked Alex, he'd definitely have to start getting copies of that map of his.

[Framing A Moose]

Jane gave a small nod to the answers to her question. She had been hoping that was the answer. The more people, the better chances of survival. Well, for her anyway. For people better suited for the dangerous outside world, perhaps going solo would be preferable. But not to Jane. Away from the sheltered, safe environment of the school, she would have to rely on others if she wanted to live.

Liz's sudden movements with her crowbar made Jane remember about her own weapon, if you could even call it that. Jane had never really needed a very effective weapon, seeing as she rarely left the building, so she was content with the three-foot long paper cutter she had found in the science room. She reached to her side, where the blade hung from a carabiner looped through her belt loop and the hole in the cutter's handle. She unhooked it from the carabiner with shaky hands and and let it dangled in her right hand. It seemed to mirror the timid doctor: awkward, small, and not made for fighting. It could do many things, but killing just wasn't really what it excelled at. But she held onto it so tightly in her fist, as if she could ward off all of life's problems with a single swipe of the thing.

@Drakeonis@Rusalka@Polaris North

[Polaris North]

@Drakeonis@Rusalka@Framing A Moose

Alex looked at Liz and then nodded, thinking that the pharmacy would be a good idea. After all, they needed medicine and it they haven't touched it yet. Hopefully, there's something left for them there. Other survivors might've ransacked it already. "Sounds like a plan. Isn't that far either so it should be safe for our mad scientist here to tag along." There wasn't a need to look at the map since they all knew where it is. After all, they did live here before so everyone knew about the place.

"There are apartments near there but I think that's more trouble than it's worth. Too dangerous with only four of us." Alexander replied to Moses, thinking back to the map. "There is a small convenience store near it though. We haven't really checked it out so maybe we can do that while going to the pharmacy." He continued. He doesn't know if it's a good idea to have a lot of stops so he didn't continue suggesting any. This was sort of a short-term mission after all.

"So, what are the things that we all need to get?" He asked once more to make sure he could retain it in his mind. He might not be an ace student when it comes to studies but he was pretty confident with his memory.

[Princeofhearts]

@Rusalka

"It's okay, don't worry about it. And I understand what you were telling me about the family, Harley. I wouldn't want that to happen to mines either... even-though it did but it's what made me stronger."

Hunter nodded as he continued to walk towards the other survivors as he petted the horse that walked besides him. He turned his head slightly over to the girl, noticing that she was almost going into tears but knew that she held it pretty well. "Don't worry, Harley. We'll be fine... I promise." he'd say to his friend as he tried his best to comfort her so she wouldn't be as sad. As the two continued their walk around the area, he'd notice about two zombies up ahead. Though, they couldn't see Hunter and Harley as of yet thankfully, he shrugged off his shoulders knowing that the Zombies wouldn't even reach them in time, and their backs were turned away from them anyways. His mind drifted off to his family and how they were training him as such a young age, he was trained how to fight, to survive and how to protect his family. That's what he was doing, protecting the other survivors and getting them food. "And you didn't make me mad. I was just out of it, I guess. But I'm doing this to help us, because without food we will not survive and you know it. Animals with family or not, they have to be hunted down and killed for us to eat and survive. I'm sorry it sounds a bit harsh but it's how I was taught to do. Reason I didn't kill that deer was because you were there and somehow convinced me not to do it." Hunter spoke while his grip tightened at the handler of his bow before speaking once again. "Where are the others?"

[TheHangedMan]

The sound of his boots on the ground heralded his arrival back into the school grounds. His backpack was slung over his shoulder to make way for the young fawn that he carried. There was a large hole in its head, implying that he had probably stabbed it somehow. Asides from that, there was also a plastic tied to the leg of the young dear.

A smile on his face, Nicodemus made his way through the school grounds. It was a good day for scavenging. He even met another person on the way - a single survivor that was dying of starvation. Nicodemus gladly satiated that hunger, even giving him some of his "special seasoning" to help ease away the pain. He took the man's remaining supplies as thanks. Not that he was able to protest anyway.

As he walked through the school grounds, he caught sight of the backs two members of his little party.

@Rusalka & @Princeofhearts

It was . . . Hunter and Harley, wasn't it? He was one of the newer members, so he was just getting to know them. A farm girl and a fledgling hunter. He hadn't had enough time to properly study them, but that was fine. They certainly weren't going anywhere, not with how they were relying on the group.

He chuckled to himself, as he approached them.

"Good morning you two," his smooth, crisp clear voice cut through the silence of the grounds like a scalpel through a child's tender flesh. "I've got a good haul today. A bit of ammunition, a knew knife for anyone who wants it, three bottles of water, and we'll probably be having venison for lunch."

He turned to the side to give them a good view of the fawn.

"I found it alone, so I figured why not?" he said, "It's a bit small, but I think it'll do for a meal."

[Kurai Assassin]

"Ok while you get on that im gonna start welding some of this metal onto the windows"she said as she walked over to grab the welding tool. A small groan sounded coming from behind her, she put it down to Kyre being bored again but as she turned around, the recently deceased bus driver was stood behind her. "KYREEEEE!!!!!"she pushed it back and as she went to run she tripped and fell into the corner the zombie used to be in

[Rusalka]

@Drakeonis@Framing A Moose@Polaris North

"Heh, you should've seen my earlier masterpiece, Mosey. You'd have loved it." Liz chuckled at Moses' artist comment while slipping an arm around the shoulders of the timid doctor beside her, a reassuring smile to Jane. "Yup, Jane Doe here's gonna be A-okay with her half-assed knight in shining armor kicking ass for her. Who knows, maybe she'll get to use that oversized scissor on something other than rats." She laughed. It was a cool weapon, and Liz wished she had the right mind to nab it first before the science geek...the adorable science geek she might add. Who knows what kind of damage she could do with it, but she was just as content bludgeoning brainless cannibals to death with a chunk of metal. Tapping her crowbar beside her shoulder, Liz waited for the others to finish speaking before giving her opinions, when really she had none. The plan sounded good, hit the convenience store first, then maybe the apartments, then finally the pharmacy.

Kinda sounded boring, so Liz hoped along the way they'd get into some action...just not too much to scare poor Jane but to show the doc how the scavengers did things. "Alright, sounds like we got this shit together. All we need is Jane's meds, one putrid ass zombie stomach..." She trailed off remembering something else they would need, something they haven't discussed...but crucial to Liz not becoming a total bitch. ".....and one pack of Marlboro reds." Liz resumed with a sigh. Of course she had to smoke the whole pack down. Cause if she didn't get her cig for the day, chances are she'd end up making their little slice of paradise into Hell...or in Liz's case their little slice of Purgatory.

@Princeofhearts@TheHangedMan

"I...I guess yer right, Hunter. Sorry if I made a big deal out of it." Harley sighed pulling off her cowgirl hat and straightening out the kinks in her sloppy ponytail, pushing back a few bangs as well from her crystal blue eyes. Carefully, she climbed down from her horse, petting him a few more times before leading him by the reins back to his stable. The little outing was good for Riley, but the horse couldn't help but amble slowly, as if he was feeling the same as his only friend, the lowly cowgirl. "I reckon we should shoot somethin' before we all starve to death, even if we don't want to. Can't be picky anymore, right?" It was true, but she couldn't help but add a rather bitter edge to it. It never fazed her before when she went hunting with her dad. Hell, back then she was killing and skinning deer every day. But now...now it just made her feel guilty all around to kill something...even those zombies sometimes.

After she had Riley settled in, she slipped her hat back on, turning to Hunter with a gentle smile, about the only smile she could muster at this point. "Still, it was nice to get out for once in a while. Being cooped up in this damn school 'bout made me crazy." Besides the hunting trip being a blunder, it felt good to feel the sun on her skin, to feel the cool breeze in her hair. "Reckon we'll have to do it again sometime. Hopefully I'm in a better mood then." Lightly she giggled, pausing as Hunter asked where the others were. Harley parted her lips, about to say they were still on the roof, but a familiar yell caught her attention.

"Yo Sandy Cheeks! 'Bout time you got your redneck ass back here! Hurry up, we're about to leave! Bring your stupid horse too!" She heard Liz holler while hanging over the edge of the roof, Harley shaking her head and replying with both hands on her hips scowling up at Liz...mostly for that redneck quip, "Alright alright! Keep yer britches on, girl! Dad gum! And don't y'all be callin' Riley stupid! He's smarter than you!" The horse neighed as if to fire back at Liz's stupid comment. Harley giggled patting him on his side. "I know it boy. She's about as ornery as a bull snake."

The clopping of boots soon followed, garnering her attention from her favorite horse. There he was, Nicodemus. A weird name, so Harley just stuck with calling him Nick. He was a shady fellow, someone she didn't take to kindly too, especially now with that poor baby deer trust up on his shoulders, and what ironic timing after Harley finished her little tirade on not wanting to shoot any baby or mama deer. Well that's just plain wrong. Oh well, can't bitch about it.

She approached Nick, one hand still on her hip as she greeted him, "Howdy Nick. Guess that's for me to fix, ain't it." No other word as she grabbed the dead fawn off his shoulders and dragged it away to skin it....but she wouldn't have time for that unfortunately.

@Kurai Assassin

youtube.com/watch?v=JuDHFnqaDCg

The scream rang out like an air raid siren all across the school, a warning of death certain to follow...gory, gruesome death. Immediately it caught the ears of both girls, Liz and Harley.

"Shit! Jess!" Liz pulled away quickly from the group and darted towards the door. "Guys, c'mon!"

Meanwhile Harley heard the girl's cry for help, startling her and causing her to drop her bowie knife before she got down to skinning and gutting the young fawn for supper. "Oh my God, Jessie! Hunter! Nick! Let's go!" The cowgirl hollered to the boys while she snatched up the lever action and raced towards the front of the school, already pushing through the double doors into the hallway.

They both had to hurry. It was only a matter of time before one of their friends was eaten alive.

[Kurai Assassin]

"KYRE, SOMEONE, ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME."Jess screamed, she grabbed a nearby wrench and threw it at the zombie slowly making its way towards her. the wrench hit the zombie in the shin breaking it, and making it fall backwards towards the bus

[Varicke]

@Kurai Assassin

The scream startled him from his work and he instantly bolted out of the bus. "JESSICA?" his eyes fell on the bus driver that wasn't exactly as dead as they hoped. He quickly grabbed for a crowbar sitting on a work bench, heart racing, and ran over between Jess and the walking corpse. "You son of a bitch!" he swung the crowbar hard into the zombie's head and began violently beating it's brains out with the hook of the crowbar lodging into it's skull, rotting flesh and blood splattering about. He pulled it out and swung again, the zombie letting out a gurgling moan before it went limp, finally dead. Kyre took a moment to catch his breath since he wasn't exactly prepared for that. His clothes now had another bloody mess that needed to be cleaned. He dropped the crowbar and ran to Jessica. "Holy crap, are you all right? Did you get bit!?" He was frantically examining her for any scratches or bite marks. If this were anyone outside of their little group he wouldn't have given two shits about them. He's very protective of the people he trusts even if they don't exactly trust him back, he relies on them and it's always good to have someone watch your back.

[Princeofhearts]

@Rusalka@Kurai Assassin@Varicke

Hunter heard screams and someone pleading for help quickly knowing that it was Jessica who was in trouble. "Shit..." he bit his bottom lips before running behind Harley and the others as they ran to the commotion. As they got closer to the others, Hunter noticed Jessica being helped Kyre as a sigh of relief escaped his lips and made his way over to them. "You alright, Jess? I been telling you that you need to learn how to protect yourself because we may not be there for you everyday.." he'd say before turning around to scan the area for zombies if they were on their way or not. "We should get out of here. With Jessica's scream it might be possible she alerted a few zombies.." Hunter said before slowly grabbing an arrow from his quiver, ready to attack at any moment.

[Kurai Assassin]

@Varicke
"Oh my god. He was dead. I shot him when I first found the bus. I..I..I"she started to cry. She wouldnt usually cry but this had actually scared her shitless. she didnt understand, in the games, the movies, the comic books it was a gunshot to the head and it should have killed it but this. this changed everything she thought about them. "YOU. FUCKING. BASTARD. WHY. CANT. YOU. STAY. DEAD"She said as she walked over to the zombies corpse and began stamping its head into the ground, tears still streaming down her face.

[Varicke]

@Kurai Assassin

The others came in to check up on the commotion. Luckily it didn't look like Jess got bit, but Kyre could do nothing but stand there and watch as she let out her emotions in waves of anger and fear as she repeatedly kicked and beat the fallen zombie. The zombie clearly had been shot in the head beforehand but it was as if it reanimated a second time. "You're absolutely sure you killed it? Because if a simple bullet to the head doesn't actually kill it then we could be missing out on some important details here." All the other zombies they previously took out stayed dead, then again it's not as if they stood around to find out if they came back to life a second time. "We should tell Moses about this." he walked up to Jessica and put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down now Jess it's fine." he froze for a moment, then turned to face the other zombie that had been shot in the head and was currently laying against the wall. After that incident he wasn't going to take any chances. He walked over and picked up the crowbar again. He began bashing the skull of the other supposedly dead zombie to make sure it stayed that way.

[Kurai Assassin]

"We have to leave. we cant stay here any longer. even if its just a few of us. this place, is going to get us killed. honestly i just want to get out of this city"she sat against the front of the bus her face in her hands. "I want to go home. i want things to go back to normal."

[TheHangedMan]

Nicodemus frowned and dropped everything he was holding. A scream was bad for two things - one, it meant that there were zombies abound that somehow posed a threat, and two, if they didn't pose a threat, they would soon. Noise, noise such as a scream of terror, was all kinds of bad. The area was clear of shamblers in the immediate vicinity, but that didn't mean there weren't more around. They would come, as surely as night followed day.

Crowbar in hand, Nicodemus scanned the area for the horde of attacking zombies . . . then slowly lowered it as he caught sight of the thing that elicited a scream from Jessica.

His face practically screaming disapproval, he said, "Give me back my concern," in the most deadpan way possible. And for him, that was very deadpan. "All this trouble over a single shambler . . . its a wonder how you aren't dead yet."

Shaking his head, he crouched near the girl, removing her hands from her face, forcing her to look at him dead in the eyes.

"There is no going back to normal. Not now, and not even in a few years. The home you know is gone, the life you know is gone, replaced by a life with the threat of the guillotine constantly hanging over your head. This is the reality of the situation, whether you accept it or not.

"So now, you have three options: one, stay safe in the fantasy that things will go 'back to normal' and slowly drive yourself insane with an unfulfillable wish, two, accept reality and die here. Or three, accept the reality, stop crying and get up and walk. Your choice Jessica."