Member
Downtown Washington D.C., 12:25pm
A trading post, or so the markings outside would lead one to believe. Whatever... this was it certainly wasn't any trading post, at least not anymore. The carcass that was once a small store had been all but picked completely clean, with broken glass and fittings now scattering the floor. Jake trod carefully as he attempted to manoeuvre his way around without sounding like a one animal stampede, occasionally he'd shuffle his foot gently to push shards of glass or metal along the floor to create a makeshift path. With a soft sigh he negotiated his way to the store counter before swinging his backpack off of his shoulders. These leftovers were better then finding nothing at the very least, the sort of things people were willing to part with these days.
One item in particular caught his attention as he scooped up the small LED flashlight, bargain find. He twisted the flashlights head and at the first sign of life switched it back off before sliding it into his pocket. This if nothing else indicated that whoever had once manned this post had clearly left in a hurry, having left their prizes behind. That's if they left willingly, the place was a dump but trying to identify if that was just the natural appearance these days or a sign of a fight was never clear. But blood... blood was always a clear giveaway. Jake frowned softly as he found his evidence across the counter, no body meant that it was unlikely the blood of a killing wound, but it mattered not. There was no point letting any of these trinkets go to waste, even as useless as they currently looked.
Jake had gathered the odds and sods of items as he flipped open his bag and dropped the pieces in. Mainly pre-end collectables that some still obsessed over even now, you'd think people would have their priorities in order when it'd been over a month since this all started. Then there was the finest currency, or nearly finest, casings. Useless to Jake but it could come in handy to keep those, never know when someone has some useful supplies to trade. Having taken the leftovers like a magpie picking up glistening trinkets Jake craned his head around to try and look for anything else amongst the rubble, wishing thinking it would seem, clearly looters prior to him had taken all the food and drinks that once would of bought money here.
Preparing to leave Jake wrestled free his scarf from his back as he wrapped it round to cover his mouth and grabbed on of his spray paint cans before sliding the bag back on to his shoulders. As he headed for the door there was a sound, almost like a rumbling... getting louder. It was evidently coming from outside, it wasn't heavy enough to be machines but something was moving and a lot of them. It took Jake a moment to scoot behind a battered section of shelving as he saw that all to familiar sight of rotting flesh charging past the store front. Such large numbers, all heading the same way, clearly heading somewhere they'd shown little interest in the store thankfully. Seeing what seemed the last of them Jake stood back upright as he jigged his crowbar free from its lodging before heading for the door once more.
A straggler, the beaten corpse had struggled to maintain the pace and fallen behind but was close enough to be an issue. The natural reaction had been the jab outwardly with his crowbar as the makeshift weapon pierced through the corpses throat like a hot knife gliding into butter. Jake gagged, he had hoped he'd gotten used to that by now before pulling through upward, freeing the head from the rest of the body, rotten innards spilling from both wounds. A heavy outward breath forced Jake's small breakfast to stay firmly in place. He could see the tail end of the horde further up the street but there was something to take care of first. Jake quickly shook the can of aerosol paint before spraying a cross over the previous trading post markings to prevent unfortunate souls wasting their time.
His task complete Jake began to make his way in the same direction as the undead were going. The opposite way would likely lead him toward their higher ranks, which he'd rather avoid if possible. On another note those mindless monstrosities were clearly after something or going somewhere, and he wanted to find out what that was. Perhaps this so called relic that he'd been hearing about being around here. He sure hoped it wasn't one of those 'I heard about this...' 'well we heard that...' situations. Last thing he needed right now was bad intel.
A trading post, or so the markings outside would lead one to believe. Whatever... this was it certainly wasn't any trading post, at least not anymore. The carcass that was once a small store had been all but picked completely clean, with broken glass and fittings now scattering the floor. Jake trod carefully as he attempted to manoeuvre his way around without sounding like a one animal stampede, occasionally he'd shuffle his foot gently to push shards of glass or metal along the floor to create a makeshift path. With a soft sigh he negotiated his way to the store counter before swinging his backpack off of his shoulders. These leftovers were better then finding nothing at the very least, the sort of things people were willing to part with these days.
One item in particular caught his attention as he scooped up the small LED flashlight, bargain find. He twisted the flashlights head and at the first sign of life switched it back off before sliding it into his pocket. This if nothing else indicated that whoever had once manned this post had clearly left in a hurry, having left their prizes behind. That's if they left willingly, the place was a dump but trying to identify if that was just the natural appearance these days or a sign of a fight was never clear. But blood... blood was always a clear giveaway. Jake frowned softly as he found his evidence across the counter, no body meant that it was unlikely the blood of a killing wound, but it mattered not. There was no point letting any of these trinkets go to waste, even as useless as they currently looked.
Jake had gathered the odds and sods of items as he flipped open his bag and dropped the pieces in. Mainly pre-end collectables that some still obsessed over even now, you'd think people would have their priorities in order when it'd been over a month since this all started. Then there was the finest currency, or nearly finest, casings. Useless to Jake but it could come in handy to keep those, never know when someone has some useful supplies to trade. Having taken the leftovers like a magpie picking up glistening trinkets Jake craned his head around to try and look for anything else amongst the rubble, wishing thinking it would seem, clearly looters prior to him had taken all the food and drinks that once would of bought money here.
Preparing to leave Jake wrestled free his scarf from his back as he wrapped it round to cover his mouth and grabbed on of his spray paint cans before sliding the bag back on to his shoulders. As he headed for the door there was a sound, almost like a rumbling... getting louder. It was evidently coming from outside, it wasn't heavy enough to be machines but something was moving and a lot of them. It took Jake a moment to scoot behind a battered section of shelving as he saw that all to familiar sight of rotting flesh charging past the store front. Such large numbers, all heading the same way, clearly heading somewhere they'd shown little interest in the store thankfully. Seeing what seemed the last of them Jake stood back upright as he jigged his crowbar free from its lodging before heading for the door once more.
A straggler, the beaten corpse had struggled to maintain the pace and fallen behind but was close enough to be an issue. The natural reaction had been the jab outwardly with his crowbar as the makeshift weapon pierced through the corpses throat like a hot knife gliding into butter. Jake gagged, he had hoped he'd gotten used to that by now before pulling through upward, freeing the head from the rest of the body, rotten innards spilling from both wounds. A heavy outward breath forced Jake's small breakfast to stay firmly in place. He could see the tail end of the horde further up the street but there was something to take care of first. Jake quickly shook the can of aerosol paint before spraying a cross over the previous trading post markings to prevent unfortunate souls wasting their time.
His task complete Jake began to make his way in the same direction as the undead were going. The opposite way would likely lead him toward their higher ranks, which he'd rather avoid if possible. On another note those mindless monstrosities were clearly after something or going somewhere, and he wanted to find out what that was. Perhaps this so called relic that he'd been hearing about being around here. He sure hoped it wasn't one of those 'I heard about this...' 'well we heard that...' situations. Last thing he needed right now was bad intel.
