Annie2002

Int. Chk: "Pulse", an apocalypse story

King of Nowhere is right, it is Day 1. I'm waiting to move on to Day 2 to give writers an opportunity to introduce their characters and their situations.

To King, what if you put the National Guard guy in a suburb of Pittsburgh or a rural town such that my farming character can eventually react with him?

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

Linda Laughlin (and her siblings):
16 years old
High School Junior, Inwood neighborhood of North Manhattan

Day 1, after dark:

Everything was going crazy outside the Laughlin house in Manhattan's northern neighborhood of Inwood. Linda had never seen so many people on the streets at one time except maybe on holidays like July 4th or New Year's Eve. Some of them were carrying or dragging bags as they rushed to get out of the city for one reason or the other. Others were breaking into houses to loot them.

Linda's siblings were all huddled together in the home's basement where she'd sent them for their safety. Their parents had left their eldest child in charge while they tended to the family's ill maternal grandmother in Newark. This wasn't anything new to the nearly 17-year-old; Linda often babysat for her 14-year-old brother Robert, 12-year-old sister Sara, and 8-year-old brother Carl. But this was the first time Linda had been in charge when there'd been an emergency situation.

Making matters worse, nothing was working the way it should: electricity, natural gas, landline, cell, computers (even on battery) were all duds. They gathered up every candle they could find, blankets, water, and food and went to the basement to hide. Linda made sure the house was looked up tight, then split the following hours between keeping her siblings calm and entertained and checking the street out front and yard out back for lootings and vandals.

All they could do was wait for their parents to get home.

Int. Chk: "Pulse", an apocalypse story

I'd love to join this. I've been RPing 1x1 in PM (due to sexual content) but would like to join a non-sexual RP in the threads again. I might even be able to convince my favorite writing partner to join if you are interested in another female writer.

I would want to write one good guy, one bad guy, and/or maybe just a panicking hermit.

I always proofread, and I post nearly every day.

@KingOfNowhere

You are very welcome to join, and if your friend wants to join, too, tell her she's welcome. Send me some ideas for your character(s), either here or in PM.

You can write independently or interact with me and or your friend. Just let me know what you're looking for.

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

Annie King -- Manhattan, New York City, New York

Physical Description:

• 24-years-old.
• Physically fit, a former Olympic athlete who visits the gym almost every day.
• Pic on its way.

Personality:

• Confident in her physical abilities; she was an alternate for both the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics (basketball).
• She's shy, though; an introvert.
• Sexually inexperienced, only having had sex with two men -- one in high school, one after -- and only once with each. (She concluded that she wasn't a good lover, though, she will someday learn that that wasn't it at all.)

Education, Training, Experience:

• She was an athlete her entire life, excelling in basketball and volleyball, ultimately becoming an alternate to the US's Summer Olympics basketball team.
• She forwent college to train for the Olympics. (Her parents had money.)
• During training during her late teens/early twenties, she began modeling.

Personal History (continuing with what's above):

• While training for the Olympics, she began modeling sportwear and more. She made a lot of money at it.
• Between modeling and rich parents, she was able to buy a 42nd floor condominium in Manhattan, the Richter Building.
• She has been seeing a man but as of yet haven't slept with him.

Her history in the RP:

• Day 1: She was in an elevator in her condo building when the Pulse occurred. She got trapped but got out. She found a master key in the doorman's desk and got back to her apartment.
• Day 4: She begins pillaging her neighbors' apartments using the master key she'd find in the doorman's station.

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

Main Characters

• Annie King -- Manhattan; athlete/fashion model.
• Kimberly Jones -- Monroeville, Pennsylvania (east of Pittsburgh); organic farmer.
• Caroline Timms -- Washington DC; Speaker of the House

****************

Character Creation Template:

Name -- location

Physical Description:

• Age years old.
• Description (as much as you want to include)
• Pic if you have one

Personality:

• Say what you want.
• .
• .

Education, Training, Experience:

• Say what you want.
• .
• .

Personal History (continuing with what's above):

• Again, say what you want.
• .
• .
• .

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

Kimberly Jones -- outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Physical Description:

• 32 years old
• Attractive (more coming when I get a pic for her)

Personality:

• Confident, bold, extrovert; can be aggressive when necessary.
• A real family person, even though she recently lost what remained of her own (see below).
• Bisexual, with a slight leaning toward younger women.

Education, Training, Experience:

• Grew up on an organic farm, which she now runs with a handful of owner/employees.
• Bachelor's Degrees in Organic Farming and Ecological Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.
• Became manager of the family farm after the deaths of her parents (see below).

Personal History (continuing with what's above):

• She discovered her fondness for other women her first year at Pitt.
• Her mother died from ovarian cancer in 2010.
• Her only siblings -- a brother and sister, both older -- died in a carbon monoxide accident in 2016.
• Her father died in an automobile accident in 2020. This left her all alone with the exception of some seasonal and permanent farmhands.

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

Kimberly Jones
32 years old
Organic Farmer
Western Pennsylvania

Sitting back in the John Deere's seat with her feet up before her, Kimmie devoured the last of a tuna sandwich as she waited for a farmhand to arrive with the fuel truck. She kicked her feet up, swallowed down some lukewarm coffee, and looked up into the clear blue sky. She loved this time of the year, with the harvest underway and, where it was already done, the reworking of the fields with plows, disks, and -- for some wintering over crops -- planting.

She caught sight of an airplane heading her way from the east, most assuredly heading for The PIT. Jet's coming into Pittsburgh International's runway 28C flew almost directly over the Jones farm. Having already dropped to less than 2,000 feet by the time they were overhead, they often caused great interest in Kimmie -- who had never in her life been on an airplane -- particularly when the skies were foggy and the monster aircraft seemed like ghosts in the mist.

The airplane coming her direction now drew extra attention, though, because it seemed like it was much lower than it should have been considering its distance from the airport. Kimmie sat up taller when she seriously began to get concerned; the descent of the plane was continuing, not leveling off as she saw dozens if not hundreds a time most days when she was outside from dawn to dusk.

Then, some twenty miles beyond the farm in the same direction as the approaching plane, a large fireball began to rise slowly into the air. Seconds later, another fireball began to rise in the same general direction but even farther away. Kimmie's first thought was 9-11! Holy fuck! Here we go again!

If she'd had time to think about that in more detail, she would have remembered that there wasn't anything to the east of her at that distance that any terrorist would want to destroy with a flying bomb. The reason she didn't have time to think about it in more detail was that Kimmie suddenly realized that the airplane nearing her was going to hit her.

She leapt off the tractor, rolling in the soft, plowed dirt, sprang to her feet, and started running south. She didn't get far before the plane's arrival, not that it really mattered as the jet flew over her and crashed a good 100 yards to the west. It, like the other crashed planes, exploded in a gigantic fireball, the explosion of which sent a shock wave over Kimmie and the sound of which hurt her ears.

She just stood there for the longest time, staring at the rising ball of red flames and black smoke as she wondered what the fuck was happening. A boom in the distance caught her attention, and she looked to the east again to find three more rising fireballs. Checking every direction, she found another seven or eight rising clouds of black, though, she wouldn't be certain that they were all from airliner crashes.

Kimmie hurried through the freshly turned ground toward the crash site, but once she reached it, she knew there was nothing she could do for the survivors -- because there were no survivors. She headed straight for the house, unsure of what was happening but certain that something incredible had.

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

Calendar of Events

Day 1: September 12, 2024

• 12:22pm Eastern Standard Time: Mysteriously, all electrical devices suddenly went dead.
• Introducing Annie King, 24, from Manhattan, New York City. She was trapped in her condiminium building's elevator for hours before getting out and returning to her apartment. (Post #1)

"Pulse" (a story of the apocalypse)

"Pulse"

A story of the apocalypse

Day 1: September 12, 2024

Annie King was halfway between her apartment and the lobby level when the elevator suddenly shuddered, went dark, and came to a quick stop. She expected the emergency lighting to come on, and when it didn't, she began calling out for help but to no avail. She found the emergency phone in the dark, but it was as dead as the elevator.

She continued hollering out every time she heard people walking or talking in the hallways of the floors between which she was stuck. Finally, she heard Frank, the doorman, call out from several floors below, "Hello...? Is there anyone in the elevator?"

"Yes! Yes! Oh my god, yes, I'm in here!" she called in panic. They talked back and forth for several minutes, with Annie identifying herself and her status of being alone and Frank telling her that the entire building was without power and that he'd tried to call the fire department but even his cell phone was dead. The conversation ended with him telling her he was again going for help and with her screaming, "Get me the fuck out of here!"

A long, long time passed, during which Annie again heard people in the halls, and again her calls for help went unanswered. She began to tire and laid her head down on her rolled up coat as she waited for Frank or whoever was to come to her rescue. At some point she fell asleep, waking sometime later in yet another panic as she suddenly recalled where she was. Again, she hollered for help, and again she got no response.

Annie remembered the butane lighter in her purse that she'd taken off the juvenile delinquent grandson of one of her neighbor's when she caught him singeing the leaves of a potted palm in the hallway. She fired it up to look around, finding nothing more than what she expected, of course. Looking up, she began contemplating the hatch in the elevator's ceiling. Going out that way was a bad, bad idea, but Annie was beginning to suspect that she'd been left for dead, if not literally then at least figuratively.

She'd been an athlete almost since she'd learned to walk, first in gymnastics and dancing, then in volleyball, basketball, and track & field. Today, as a 24-year-old who went to the gym almost every day, she was still in great shape and despite being only 5'8", Annie could nearly dunk a basketball. She fired up the lighter again, studied her target, put the flame-maker aside, and leapt upwards with an outstretched hand.

It took several times, but eventually Annie knocked the ceiling panel open. With another leap, she latched ahold of the panel supports and pulled herself up atop the elevator's ceiling. Using the lighter, she found a steel ladder running up the shaft. She climbed to the next floor above and somehow managed to force the door open. She climbed out onto what would turn out to be the 22nd floor, just a bit higher than halfway to her 42nd floor condo. Here, too, Annie found no overhead lights or emergency lighting; even the fire exit signs were dark.

She descended the emergency stair well all the way to the lobby, finding it devoid of security or residents. It was dark outside, which surprised Annie as she had left her apartment at just a bit past noon. All of this was freaking her out, of course, but what was happening out on the streets really made her anxious. The town was black with the exception of the glow from flames, some from burning cars, others from burning store fronts. The streets were filled with rioters, pillagers, and fleeing innocents.

Annie wasn't about to go outside, so she turned back for her apartment. The elevators obviously weren't working, and the stairs weren't looking good either; for security reasons, the lobby door to the stair well could only be accessed with the doorman's key. The doorman was absent, but after forcing open one drawer after another at the front desk with a heavy piece of metal art she found nearby, Annie found the key for which she'd been looking.

It took her 20 minutes to ascend to her 42nd floor apartment, something she was only able to do because of her physical fitness and heightened adrenaline level. She passed more than two dozen descending residents, all of them carrying bags as they tried to get out of the building and, presumably, the city. Annie only knew a few of them by face and even fewer of them by name.

Once inside her apartment, Annie stood on the balcony for the longest time, just staring out on the city as the anarchy increased.

Int. Chk: "Pulse", an apocalypse story

"Pulse"

In September 2024, an unexplained event called The Pulse instantaneously caused electrical devices across the globe to cease working. Planes fell from the sky, cars stopped on the highways, computer terminals turned black, cell phones went dead, and so on.

How will this affect the world? We should find out:

So, the idea:

• Each writer develops one or more characters facing a situation resulting from the Pulse.
• I prefer a "heads up" regarding your general storyline, simply to ensure that it doesn't contradict another writer's storyline.
• You can write independently or interact with other writers as desired.
• There is no minimum length requirement. If a couple of lines or paragraphs moves your story ahead, that's fine. I only ask three things:
  
  
  
  • You don't hold up the story by posting too little too often.
  • You don't post a million little posts every day.
  • If you want to post longer posts, you don't write a novel.
• Please proofread for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors and correct those errors. (Reading the work of others should not be a chore.)
• You respect the writing of others.