Realistic or Modern Patient Zero (A Zombie Survival RP)

[BloodThunder27]

Agent Brian Rousseau
Age: 36
Location: Lodge Interactions: Colt Rumble Fish
Mentioned: N/A

Finally OverThe last zombie fell just as Brian had finished reloading. Exhausted from fighting in the cold, Brian looked up into the sky, taking a deep breath. However, there was no time to rest just yet. Colt approached him as he fell back against the wall, tired. She had asked him to do a quick sweep to make sure there were no more stragglers. He simply nodded before tightening the grip on his handgun. Hopefully they would not be attacked again anytime soon. He was down on his second to last magazine and only God knew how much ammunition they had consumed in this attack. He had also expected it to be a while until the snow had cleared. At the same time, they couldn't just leave the infected corpses, but it was just too cold to start a fire. Hopefully the Blizzard would let up a little too. Stepping back outside, Brian kept his gun at the ready. After doing a quick sweep, Brian went back inside, taking off his jacket and holstering his Handgun. Hell, he even set the Rifle aside. Briefly, he took his wrist blade off to raise his sleeves. Thankfully, he didn't get frost bite from being out there. Leaning against the kitchen counter, he began pondering on what to do next. As he folded his arms, he closed his eyes, lost in thought.

Shinoa Bradford
Age: 17
Location: Lodge Interactions: Milly Rumble Fish , Lelianna FireMaiden
Mentioned: Colt Rumble Fish

Pregnancy Progression: 39 Weeks, 2 Days

Countdown to Childbirth

Its Over...The young mother cringed a little when Michael ate a pancake out of his pocket. But she settled down after a couple of minutes. Throughout the remainder of the attack, she tried to comfort Milly, giving her hugs and rubbing her back. Moments later, it was over. But sadly, the outside of the lodge was now littered with rotting corpses of the dead. Though one of them had managed to get inside, they were quickly put down. Colt soon gave the all-clear to go downstairs. And with the broken window, sleeping in this room would be unsafe until that window was sealed. As warm as her body was, it wasn't enough to withstand winter weather. As she slowly got out of bed, she ushered Milly to come join her downstairs in the living room. Soon Lelianna returned and helped her out of the room. The nurse helped her navigate around the dead bodies and broken glass. When asked about the five-one-one rule, Shinoa nodded. Though so far, she did feel relaxed and at ease, despite the stressful situation before her. Looking down at her belly, she gently started caressing it. "I will. And I'll be honest, I'm more scared of giving birth then dying."

 

[Maj]

​

The entire journey to the pharmacy was nothing to Owen but white noise. He couldn’t focus on the sounds of his boots padding in the hallways, or paths that he and his cousin chose to take. Owen followed her almost mindlessly, his thoughts still stuck on the woman he had just brutalized. The shape of her nose, the way her fingers had grasped at him as he wrapped his hands around her throat. Every time he found himself getting too lost in the feel of that memory he could feel his body shiver, as if it instinctually was trying to shake away the bad thoughts. Focusing on the destruction of dead things was futile.

It was pretty apparent to Owen that whatever his cousin had traveled so far to get wasn’t exactly as she had intended. Sarah had busied herself with the computers. Why would she need that? What could possibly be one that computer that was worth throwing themselves into one of the most dangerous places in Aurora? She had been at the hospital when everything had gone down and still clawed her way back for what?

Sarah was sick.

Everything clicked into place so well Owen felt stupid for not putting it together sooner. Sarah had been here because she was getting treated, but everything had gone to hell before she had gotten the medication she needed. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it, the girl had been so mysterious about the subject it had honestly backfired and brought more attention to it. Whatever was wrong with her was important enough to come back and now she didn’t even know what she needed.

“We have a nursing student back at the lodge,” Owen mentioned idly, as to not spook his cousin. “I’m sure she can make more sense of all this stuff here than we can.” He began shoving stuff into his bag. Some stuff he was able to recognize off of Leliana’s list, some he recognized himself as pain medications and the like. Anything he thought would be of value he stuffed in the bag. Medications by the bottles, gauze, tubing, syringes, tiny bottles of liquid that had names he couldn’t pronounce if he tried. He wasn’t sure how useful it would all be, and it would likely slow him down, but Owen was convinced that Leliana would be able to put it to use.

A noise. Owen looked up from the shelves toward the door they had entered. Had he imagined it? It was easy to do in this place, it was crawling with bodies. Every little thing made him jump. The male put a finger to his lips to signal to his cousin to be silent. Each of his quiet steps left faint red boot prints on the white linoleum, the blood on his soles left over from their last squirmish.

With his palm flat on the swinging door, Owen pushed it open as slowly as possible to keep the hinges from squeaking. As his head poked around the corner of the heavy door, he let out a loan moan. He hadn’t been hearing things, in fact he was surprised he hadn’t heard anything sooner. A whole heard was clambering down the hall. There wasn’t a good way to get an exact number, but it was in the double digits, maybe over twenty. One monster stood at the helm, he looked different than the monsters that they had dealt with so far.

If his eyes were closed he would have looked almost normal. His skin wasn’t peeling or bitten and clawed. There were no gaping wounds. It almost looked like he had just passed away in his sleep. Dark brown hair fell in his white eyes, milky and lost to the world. His mouth opened in a weird sort of sickening grin exposing blood covered teeth and lips. When his eyes locked on Owen’s face, the monster charged at a surprising pace. It was jarring and odd, most of the monsters just sort of shambled closer to you, but this one seemed to know what Owen was, and furthermore he was able to run.

As quickly as he could, Owen moved back on the pharmacy side of the swinging door. A metal lever was near the hinges, a bolt that pushed into the floor to lock the room. It wouldn’t hold long, but long enough to get it barricaded with any luck. The sound of the bar finding it’s home in the metal socket on the ground let out a large screeching noise. This seemed to alert many of the shambling monsters in the hall who growled and moaned in response.

“We have to barricade this door Sarah, this is bad.”


Mentions: FireMaiden (Leli)
Interactions: Oslonaut (Sarah)

 

[Maj]

​

October 18th, 2018
Early Afternoon
Near Moe’s Don’t Tell Motel
Crying was something that didn’t come naturally to Andy. She didn’t know how to let tears gracefully fall down her round freckled face, every sob crept up her throat like vomit. The girl choked them back, drowning on her own tears and snot. Andrea Jordan was at the end of her rope.

Tired didn’t even begin to cover it. She still had her arms looped under Luca’s own, dragging his unconscious form through the sticks and dirt. He was heavy despite his lean form and her arms felt like rubber. Andy was fast and agile, she wasn’t built for strength. On the track team she ran, shot arrows, jumped hurdles, but no one was stupid enough to have her throw javelins or be in shot put. The girl hadn’t been able to drag the dead weight of her companion far but, there wasn’t another choice but to keep going. Her arms ached, her back even more so. Blood ran down her arm from the wound in her shoulder and something warm and wet dripped down her face with her tears. It didn’t matter how much pain she was in, the girl had to keep moving because stopping would be death.

A herd of corpses was stumbling not far behind them.

The noise of the accident and the thick scent of blood had been enough to draw them, like moths to a flame. Luca still wouldn’t wake. If he would they would easily be able to outsmart and out maneuver the creatures. No amount of jostling him, smacking him, or screaming his name seemed to bring him any closer to consciousness. But as the tears streamed hot down her dirty and bloodied face, her arms finally gave, and Luca’s torso fell the short distance from her arms to the ground.

It had been hard enough carrying him, but she also knew that they would have been useless without their bags. Andy had been smart enough to pull them from the wreckage, and when she dropped Luca, the bags fell too and all of her weight she had been using to haul the italian through the woods forced her to fall down on her ass.

The monsters had been gaining ground on them for a while, and now with the girl totally stopped and vulnerable they seemed to close in even faster. Andy knew she could leave. It would be so easy to stand up on her own two shaky legs with her bag and leave Luca behind to be eaten and buy her time. So easy, he would probably do the same if the roles had been reversed. But no matter how many times that tantalizing thought had pushed the to the forefront of her mind, the red head couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Family is family, regardless of distance.”

What else could she do? Even if she could pull her bowstring with her tired, injured arms there was no way she could loose enough arrows to bring down the whole group of zombies. She couldn’t drag Luca an inch further and there was no way she could guarantee his safety if the girl tried to draw them away from him. In reality there was only one option left. There was almost no chance of survival, but Andy would have to make a stand. Leaving him just wasn’t an option.

She wasn’t sure if she was shaking from the cold, fear, or exhaustion at this point. Regardless, her hands trembled as they fumbled with the zipper to Luca’s bag. Wet, icy snow soaked through the denim of her jeans as she knelt by the bag. The moans of the monsters grew in volume and ferocity as she could hear their uneven footsteps crunch the frostbitten leaves and twigs of the forest floor. Andy had no idea how to fire a gun, the only time she had ever even held one was a few days prior when Colt had tossed her a hand gun. If she was serious about staying and putting herself between the monsters and Luca, she didn’t have another choice.

Her fingers were numb from the cold as they wrapped around the icy metal of the rifle in the bag. All she could hope for now was that it was easy enough to use. From the hunting trips she had taken with her uncle she knew that most rifles had a pretty heavy recoil. This would be nothing like shooting her compound bow, but hopefully her aim would translate moderately well.Mimicking what she had seen her uncle and Luca do when they held the piece of equipment, pulling the butt into her shoulder and holding it where it felt the most natural. Using the sight to aim where instinct told her was the head, Andy squeezed the trigger.

BANG

A small cry escaped her lips as the noise rang through the woods. She hadn’t been prepared for how loud or immediate the thing would be. Her ears hurt from the sound but shot had hit her target. Unfortunately, it hadn’t hit the thing in the head, but that could be corrected. She stood with her feet shoulder width apart, blocking Luca’s form from the monsters. Gathering her resolve the girl adjusted her aim and fired again, each shot echoing after the other.

Round after round, Andy continued firing at the oncoming group of zombies. It was within the sound that Luca found himself once more returning to consciousness. The first sense that came back was his hearing. Initially drowned out, he was soon able to recognize that the sounds of a rifle accompanied by the grunts of various zombies were what helped paint the picture as his eyes opened to the gray sky. The snow had been descending at a rapid pace; the back of his shirt as well as his pants were wet as a result. Luca’s head was foggy. A resounding pain at the back of it, reminiscent of a migraine, graced the man with its presence while he came to the realization that he was not dead yet. His hues moved from the gray to Andy’s back. She had been standing in front of him, as the first line of their defense.

“A’tta girl.”
He slowly pushed himself up with a groan. This had been a much harder task than it had ever been previously. The man shakily pushed himself to his feet, finding it hard to gain his balance. Equally shaky digits grasped the bags on the ground and tossed them around both shoulders. This resulted in the pathetic sight of Luca losing his footing and dropping down to his knees. Despite this minor setback, the Italian was quick to get back up to his feet and stumbling off under the assumption that Andy would be following close behind him. Luca was still off. Whereas being simply knocked out would have provided him with clarity upon waking up, this was worse. It was not the first time Luca had experienced a concussion and it probably wouldn’t be the last.

“C’mon.” He vocalized as he stumbled off, still trying his hardest to maintain his balance.

At the sound of his voice, Andy felt the hot tears of relief stinging at her eyes. She hadn’t been sure how long she could keep up her defenses. Her shoulder and hands hurt from the heavy recoil of the weapon on top of her already existing injuries. Each time the rifle shot, it threw her aching and bleeding shoulder back, the hot blood rolling down her bare arms.

As soon as he was on his feet and stumbling forward, the redhead followed behind him, only turning to knock off one of the monsters if it got too close. It was obvious he was out of it, he stumbled about, dizzy and disoriented. Andy moved so her shoulder was under his arm to help support him. It wasn’t likely that he would appreciate the help, but this way they moved faster and she could get them to shelter before more monsters and more ice found them. They needed to find some place quiet to tend to their wounds. The girl wasn’t sure if they were more in danger of being eaten, bleeding out, or freezing to death. Looking for Owen was futile in this condition.

Brax

 

[The Mad Queen]

Jenna: The Lodge
​

​

The girl was climbing up the stairs when Leliana passed her by and she prepared herself for an argument. The way she'd left things before the zombies attacked not only looked bad but it left the nurse with the final word. Her passive-aggressive, patronising words had built up a fire in Jenna and with an all-clear given she was ready to let it loose, to put her in her place.

"I'm guessing Rouge was the redhead?"
She was about to open her mouth there and then, she prepared to defend herself using words. After all, if the group believed Leliana then Jenna wouldn't last long. She had no use, and that meant she would be kicked out at the first sign of trouble. It wasn't just about not being backed into a corner and taking no crap from anyone, it wasn't about the pride in the work she'd done. It was about survival.

"I'm sorry Jenna, but she's gone."
Jenna stared, her face going blank in a thousand yard stare. As people moved around the house, checking barricades or just doing a sweep to make sure that there were no infected Jenna remained still and silent. One one hand on the staircase, the other on the bloodied cane.
Cammy stared up at her new owner, nudging the back of Jenna's left leg with her nose. Yet, the vet showed no reaction. It was as if the dog, the house and the people within weren't even there.

Rumble Fish Soma Schicksal Hyped_Taco King Vioogra BloodThunder27 Brax FireMaiden

 

[Rumble Fish]

The following post is a collab between Rumble Fish Hyped_Taco
Colt had only started to move the body when Ralph came in, requesting her permission to study Rogue’s body, in hope to figure out what had happened. The woman frowned a little as she considered it. On the one hand, she wanted the body out. The sight of the dead girl disturbed her terribly. She had been okay the day before so what happened? Even just the sight of her red hair was enough to make her extremely uncomfortable. It was too familiar. Even the red hair reminded her too much of Sasha, despite the differing shade and style. The woman sighed through her teeth as she took a moment to weigh it all up.

She wanted the body out of here, mainly for safety and the fact nobody wanted to be in a house with a corpse, but Ralph had a point when he said it could provide information about the parasite. At least she thought that was what he said. It would make her death seem less in vain, and they could respect her life and death. As she thought, she took out her flask, unscrewing it slowly as she pondered. But her thoughts were leaning towards the latter; her expression became blank as she tried to think of the best course of action.
--
¨Hey Doc so… I don't like having a body inside the house so I´ll just throw it outside with the rest, so it doesn´t just stench the rest of the house and stuff¨ Michael told Ralph after he tried to inspect the body, he knew why he wanted to check it, but what did he have to do it? A kitchen knife and no other medical supplies? No fucking way would he be having blood inside of his house now, he couldn´t stand the stench and sight of it.
--
Colt was about to answer Ralph’s request when she heard Michael speak up, answering for her. Colt, who was about to drink from her flask but froze. With an angry growl, she put it back in her pocket and whirled around to face the man, her green and bloodshot eyes boring into him.

“Sorry.” She snarled through her teeth in a soft but threatening tone, “But did he ask YOU? It doesn’t matter what you want! It doesn’t matter what I want! It’s about what’s right! So shut yer fat mouth for one minute!” She added with a hiss before turning back to Ralph with a clear of her throat and a calmer gaze. As calm as a hungover and stressed-to-fuck marine could be at least.

“That’s a good idea. Take her into one of the back rooms. And,” she gave him the Glock on the ground she had dropped, “Take this just in case.” she looked at him before glancing down at the Rogue-Thing as she lied lifeless on the ground. She took a moment to brush the hair from her face. Poor kid. Colt took a moment. Now that the siege was over, the full weight of grief and guilt thrusted itself upon her. She turned her head to look as Marcus came in, looking to fix the window.

“Hmm… there might be a toolbox downstairs. I’ll go and look.” she wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. There were no tears but they were threatening to fall. She got up, adjusting her leg slightly before heading out the door.
--
¨Wot mate?¨ Michael quickly answered back to Colt, he could not quite understand the reason why she got so mad to him, did she want the fucking blood of the thing on the floor or what?. ¨Oi! you want this fucking thing to stench the house or what?!¨ once more, Michael understood jack shit of what was going around him, did they not watch any zombie movie as he did or what? ¨Come on, why do you want to check that thing, we all know it´s transmitted by a bite or something so we should just get rid of the body. ¡¡and for God´s sake if you are the leader here then stop drinking dammit!!¨ Michael didn´t know it yet, but after yelling about the flask the woman had, he had just fucked up.

--

After her talk, Colt had been half way down the stairs. She could hear the man talking away but she mostly blanked it out. Until he said that final sentence. That one sentence; it drove her over the edge. She paused, let out a low growl and span round on the stairs and marched angrily back up. She stormed into the room.

“Right, you!” She snapped as she swiped and grabbed Michael by his (weirdly) small ear, dragging him. She turned to the other two men, “I’ll get those tools.” she said to Marcus and then to Ralph in a more reverent tone, “Get her looked at. We’ll bury her in the evening when the snow lets up.” she said before dragging the fat man with her back down the stairs and towards the back where she thought the toolbox was stored, in a cupboard.

“I swear!” She released him finally, her hand hurting from the grip, “If I were Luca I probably would have had ya chucked out of that window on your first breath! Ya think this is a game?! Ya make light of somebody’s death, give her no respect? What he finds could be vital! Do you have any idea of the severity of what is going on right now?!” She was not shouting but her tone could cut diamonds.
--
The fear in Michael´s eyes could be seen a mile away ¨Oh shit did I just scream that?¨ he had not intended to say that out loud, just say it in his mind as everything else, but when he saw her coming back through that door, he knew he fucked up big time. She walked towards him, grabbed his hair and started walking downstairs ¨Ow ow ow¨ it hurt him the way Colt dragged him around, and they were just going for some fucking tools. While getting downstairs she started lecturing “I don't know who the fuck Luca is! And i know this ain`t resident evil but i sure as heck now how to handle zombies¨ he lied, he only knew how to throw a gun at them “Of course I had respect for her, but she took my Katana so im still salty about that. And no I dont even know what`s the severity of this situation” He knew of the zombies yeah, but he still had not encountered the hazmat.
--
Colt was already angry at how he had interrupted her, and yet had the gall to continue spewing word vomit which, to the ex-Marine meant nothing. What was with this man?! Granted he was a good bit younger than her, but when she was nineteen she was… being sent off to Afghanistan. The woman shook the thought out of her head and her stony glare returned.

“If you don’t know who Luca is, you’re fucking blind. And no! This isn’t Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Medal of Honour or any of those! This is real life! And do you honestly expect me to believe you can handle a Thing?” she threw her hands forward in frustration. She had seen his “combat” and needless to say, she was severely unimpressed. But what really put the nail in the coffin was his comments about Rogue.

“Stupid…. Stupid! Have you got no shame!? Do you ever think before you open your mouth? You are more concerned over that fucking sword than Rogue? A life?!” She snarled angrily, “I’m not even going to attempt to get it through your thick skull about how bad this all sounds. All you got to know is, see the next Thing that could come barging into this Lodge? If you don’t get your shit together, it could be any of us! Even you!” she prodded his chest with a hard poke before stooping down to rummage around the cupboard for the toolbox. Everything she had said had been done so quietly and only to him, despite the harsh tone.
--
No Shame? No shame?!, who was she to told him that making fun out of the death of somebody was fucke- wait, now that he thinks about it he was really being an asshole “Wait, i just realized what i just said was fucked up… Real fucked up” he tried apogolizing to Colt but no words could come out of his mouth, how could he possibly try to redeem himself after just insulting a dead person… “Uhh… if you want to I can help you with your labor M`lady” heck, he had to start somewhere so he could at least try to help her with the windows right now.
--
Colt could only glare at the man as he finally seemed to put two and two together. While she was relieved that he did so, she was still angry with him. But Colt knew when to fold them. She let out a huff as she found the toolbox and was inspecting its contents. Hammer and nails. Great. She gave the man a side glance as he asked if there was anything that he could help with. There appeared to be a few small planks of wood too. Not much, but it was better than nothing.

“Make yourself useful. Take these.” She gave him the wood and toolbox. “Give these to Marcus and help him.” she added before walking past him. As she left the cupboard, she spotted Jenna on the stairs. She seemed frozen. She had only caught snippits, but she knew she had just learned of Rogue’s death. Colt let out a heavy sigh and took off her army cap. Hanging it on the banister, she walked up a few steps until she was just next to Jenna.

She sighed deeply, unsure as to what to do. All she could do was put a hand lightly on the woman’s shoulder.

“I know.” she said before glancing down, “We’ll… We’ll bury her soon. Once the storm settles. I’m sorry, Jenna.” she added before removing her hand and walking to Marcus’ room, not knowing where else to go. She stood at the window, watching the raging storm outside. She could not shake off the guilt of allowing that to happen. Maybe it would not have happened if she was more observant. She noticed the wine bottle from the night before and picked it up. There was still a little in it. Colt sighed as she gripped onto the neck and stared out the window, wanting a few quiet moments to think.

And it was only noon...
Soma Schicksal The Mad Queen ​

 

[The Mad Queen]

Doctor Ralph Fisher​

He knew where Michael was coming from, obviously but if Rogue's body was tossed outside like all the rest then her death would only be more tragic. A waste of a young life, made worse by the fact that her body was tossed away like trash.
But Michael was not in charge. Colt was, and Ralph looked to her for an answer.
"That’s a good idea. Take her into one of the back rooms."

"Thank you." He breathed a small sigh of relief, but raised a hand when she tried to give him the Glock. He raised his shirt, showing his sidearm tucked neatly into it's holster.
"I also have a rifle downstairs, taken from one of the hazmat troopers. It's yours if you want it."
He hadn't even thought about using it during the siege. It was a life or death situation so he was sticking to what he knew, and a rifle like that could have had Ralph spraying bullets all over the place, every shot wasted.

With Colt and Michael gone, Ralph looked down at the body.
"I'm sorry. I wish..."
He held his tongue "No. Don't think like that." He muttered to himself
Looking around the room he wrapped Rogue up in a bedsheet and carried her into one of the back rooms. He took great care in making sure that nobody else saw him, peering around every corner before stepping out.

His mind was drawn towards Milly and Shinoa but he was also worried about Jenna. None of them should see it. It took a few minutes, but he managed to set the body down away from the others, covering her with sheet. He'd need equipment so, with the door firmly closed he made his way back downstairs. It wasn't like the lodge functioned like a hospital or funeral home but with some tools he could make do without giving up on infection control.

Leliana, being a nurse would surely have taken stock of what medical supplies they had he though so set off to find her.

Jenna
​

​

Cammy's ears pricked up, the dog listening in on Colt and Michael's argument while Jenna remained still. If any words exchanged went through her head, she didn't show it. Once it was done, she went back to nudging the back of Jenna's leg with her nose but the girl did not budge. Not until Colt approached, resting a hand on her shoulder.

Her head turned away slightly while she still kept the same thousand yard state on her face. Once the hand was gone, she started to walk up the stairs, making her way into the room with the broken window. The floor was covered in glass and stained with some blood but she merely kept her distance, starting out of the window and zipping up her leather jacket to keep out some of the cold while her hands rested in her pockets.

Rumble Fish Soma Schicksal Hyped_Taco King Vioogra BloodThunder27 Brax FireMaiden

 

[Mynah]

Marty Kang (강준유)
18 October 2018

For two days, Marty Kang Jun-yu stayed locked inside his hotel room, having barricaded the door with the couch, checking his phone constantly for updates on the outside world (there were, strangely, none) and living off the remnants of the room service dinner and the stash of instant spicy ramyeon noodles he'd kept in the cabinet.

In the afternoon of 16 October, just as Marty had finished packing his bags and made himself comfortable in the relatively empty hotel lobby, awaiting the arrival of his Uber driver, the sound of an ominous murmur could be heard filling the corners of the reception area. Rumours of a new disease that had escaped the confines of Freeman Medical Centre soon cropped up, and all around him, faceless figures of other hotel guests soon began to trickle out of the hotel, their limbs wrought with anxious trembling. The receptionist, a hunched-over old man in his mid-sixties, was frantically answering multiple phones at once, barely able to keep up with the barrage of calls streaming in from outside.

Then came the undead. Horrid, spectral mounds of decomposed meat that no longer resembled anything human in the physical or philosophical sense, crawling and lumbering across the street, tearing into the living like hyenas and spraying ribbons of flesh all over the asphalt streets. The murmurs within the hotel lobby soon erupted into screams of abject horror, as the chronically-overworked hotel staff made to barricade the thin glass doors of the lobby, having missed their chance to make a speedy escape. Amidst the chaos, the sound of gunshots could be heard coming from outside, as a lone man on the streets, armed with an FN P90, sprayed bursts of rounds into the ghouls till he, too, fell to their advances.

Marty, surprisingly, found himself feeling no anxiety whatsoever in that moment, two days ago, instinctively feeling for his phone, his wallet, and his passport. While the twenty or so people in the lobby sat in shock, catatonically watching the streets from behind the glass doors, Marty simply grabbed his suitcase and went back upstairs to his hotel room, barricading the door and pulling the curtains shut.

Within the next two days, mobile data was cut, as were the street lamps outside. The hotel's electricity lasted a little longer, powered by the generators in the basements, but finally gave out on the morning of 18 October, just as Marty was typing out a long message on chat.

tzi-meng : marty whr tf r u
tzi-meng : we hv bn waiting fr 3 hrs
jy._.kang : I'm still in Aurora.
anthony : Bruh
anthony : thought you were gonna leave 2 days ago?
jy._.kang : my driver never came
tzi-meng : so much fr pubg lmoa
jy._.kang : there's something going on here
jy._.kang : the hospital's been overrun with some disease
tzi-meng : mebbe nxt time P
jy._.kang : The whole town has been quarantined
anthony : wait what
jy._.kang : Yea
tzi-meng : wtf
tzi-meng : r u srs
tzi-meng : there's nth on d news
jy._.kang : This is exactly the sort of thing the media wouldn't retort
jy._.kang : *report
anthony : sounds like sars all over again
anthony : what are you doing now?
jy._.kang : hiding in my hotel room
tzi-meng : marty
tzi-meng : do u know d way out of aurora
tzi-meng : by foot
jy._.kang : hopefully I can get updates of some kind
jy._.kang : Not really
tzi-meng : u shd prob contact d hotel mgmt n ask fr transport out asap
anthony : what about local news?
- no internet connection -

By the time it was afternoon, the air in the room had become too stuffy. Desperate for some cool air, Marty shed his sweater and pulled open the curtains and windows, only to be greeted by the horrendous stench of rotting blood wafting through the streets. There were no walkers in sight on the street over which his room looked, but the headless bodies and gore that lay all over the floor was enough to send the smell of death rising to the high heavens. Just one street down from the hotel was John Bentley Public Park, a refreshing little patch of nature that Marty had spent much time frequenting in the past three weeks; now, he could hardly tell if it was the same park, so strong was the aura of pestilence that lilted through the streets like some requiem of affliction.

As he slurped up the last of the ramyeon noodles he had in his room (made with cold bottled water, for there was no more hot water), Marty silently contemplated his next course of action, staring blankly out the window into the ominously silent streets. For sure, there was no way he could stay indefinitely in the hotel room, seeing as his food had all but run out. And yet...

"Screw it", he snapped, tossing aside the empty paper cup and wiping his spectacles. "Time to go."

Opening his suitcase, Marty sifted through the items he had with him, tossing them into two piles on the bed. With the suitcase empty, he took his backpack, stuffed in as many essential items as he had, and then sat back down on the bed and scribbled his inventory list into his notebook.

- shirts 2
- jeans 2
- socks 2 pairs
- bottled water 2 full 1L bottles
- knife 1
- potato chips 3 bags
- toothpaste + toothbrush
- wallet
- phone
- portable charger 2
- swiss army knife
- passport
- 3 in 1 soap
- picture of...

It was as he scribbled the last item down that the realisation that he had not once contacted either of his grandparents throughout his last three weeks in the United States hit Marty. A lump welled up in his throat as he held up the laminated piece of paper, looking silently at the now slightly faded picture. There he stood, a scruffy-haired thirteen year old, next to his then eighteen-year-old brother and his two grandparents, with Nagoya Castle in the background, the first whispers of Japan's famous cherry blossom oceans blooming in the periphery of the image. Back then, neither of his grandparents looked particularly old (both were relatively young, in fact); the image that flashed in Marty's mind, however, was something rather different, a more forlorn, desolate picture.

"Grandpa... Grandma..."

Marty forced the lump in his throat back down and wiped his moist eyes on his sweater sleeve.

Without so much as another look round the hotel room, he thrust his feet, with the aid of the hotel room's shoe horn, back into his sneakers, which had by now turned from white to a dirty grey, and then dragged the couch away from the door and boldly stepping out.

The lobby itself had become empty. There were no traces of any damage whatsoever, yet all the people who had sat screaming in there two days ago were now gone, vanished without a trace. The furniture was left in disarray, and a single white glove lay on the navy blue carpet like a portent of eventual dismemberment. Gingerly, Marty snuck into the lounge, where there was free food provided to guests who were checking in and out; now, the food was all gone, save for a small basket of five oranges that had most likely been sitting there since 16 October, the day that Marty had planned to leave the town.

The park lay just beyond the door, in easy sight. Marty couldn't see anything from the lobby or from his room, but hopefully, he thought, there would be people there who could help explain the situation to him. It didn't occur to him that to head out into the open, where just two days ago the ghouls had wandered, may not necessarily have been the best idea; perhaps there were still things in the kitchen that could be eaten (all the room service food tasted canned anyway), or some information somewhere on how to get out of the town in a more efficient way than simply wandering around in search of those in the know.

By then, however, Marty was already desperate. Emotionally and physically weary from being on constant alert in his hotel room on less than five hours of sleep a night, he could hardly remember his own personal particulars, let alone think of an elaborate plan to make his grand escape.

Now, he murmured to himself, the best option would be to quietly find someone willing to help. Wherever that someone may be.

And so he pried open the sliding doors, slung his bag on both his shoulders, and sprinted for the park.

 

[FireMaiden]

​

Location: The Jordan Lodge
Interaction: BloodThunder27 (Shinoa) The Mad Queen (Ralph)
Mentioned/In The Area: King Vioogra (Ivan) Soma Schicksal (Marcus) TheTreForce (Ray) Hyped_Taco (Micheal) BloodThunder27 (Brian) Rumble Fish (Milly/Colt) The Mad Queen (Jenna)

"I...I would be too," Leliana admited with an awkward chuckle, "But we're gonna make sure sure nobody else dies today." The feeling of that sentence was weird, something she knew she shouldn't be saying. She shoukd say they would make sure nobody else would be dieing, today or otherwise, but that was something Leliana couldn't say because obviously, they weren't safe. None of them were safe there, maybe they were still to close to town and they should think about moving. But no, this place had generoators and running water, it was hidden. The town was probably overrun by god knows what, ans they couldn't leave, the town had been surrounded. At least, according to Brian. Leliana shook her head, no she couldnt be doing this right now, she could fall into her little paranoid spiral later. Which made her think about- Colt's angry voice joined by Micheal's, interrupting her toughts as she made sure Shinoa got settled okay. Colt was in her right to yell at this Micheal guy, he hadn't done much and acting like an idiot wasn't a good idea, but of course, not everyone was going to be combat handy, but damn. He pushed the first zombie back out of the lodge, and warned everyone, which counts for something, but, Leliana sighed a little. Mostly to herself as she watched Colt, and Micheal. She had to head back upstairs to grab a few things before they either started cleaning up or just closed the room off temporarily, some of the medical suppiles she brought up shouldn't be exposed to extreme cold.

As she climbed the stairs, she passed Ralph, who might have been unaware of her presence as he seemed to be looking for something, she would ask when she came back down. The red-head's body was still in the room, broken glass covered the floor, the room was a mess. She sighed, thankful nobody else was in the room. Leliana kept her eyes on Rogue's body. It wasn't the first time she had seen a dead body obviosuly, but something about this unnerved her. Maybe it was the fact she was supposed to be sleeping there in the lodge. What if she had turned while everyone else was asleep? Would they have had time to react? To defend themselves? The people who really knew combat seemed to all be drunk, it was a pleasant thing to think about. But, nothing lately was pleasant to think about. She had to wonder what they were gonna do with Rouge, maybe Marcus and Micheal wee going to move her outside. Or maybe...Leliana quickly stepped over the body, moving through the broken glass to grab the bag of medical supplies. She left the room soon after, after rummaging through the drawer she had claimed for something, before quickly heading back down to Dr.Ralph. "Are you looking for these?" She asked, showing him the bag. He was CDC, Rogue's body was still inside, he must be doing some sort of examination right? "We don't have a lot in terms of equipment, but we have a few things." Leliana gave him a small smile, "I noticed her body is still inside, you're going to examine it? Can I help?"

 

[Brax]

While the inhabitants of the lodge did their best to combat the incoming zombie menace, both Luca and Andy were focused on fighting off frostbite. Fifteen minutes had passed. There was nothing but white covering their next moves. Despite being off cognitively, Luca did his best to keep caution from being thrown into the wind. His clothes were wet and the snow’s unstoppable forward momentum was only adding insult to injury. Most of it was luck, but eventually the two came across the edge of the woods. A small street separated the two from a row of houses. One of these would have to do for the night. This line of residences in the highly urbanized part of Aurora must have been built by the same contractor, considering each home was indiscernible from one another.

The one right in front of them would serve just fine. Especially if no one was inside of it. Dead or otherwise. Luca stumbled across the street and up to the fence of its backyard. He opened the gate, making as little noise as humanly possible. His boots generated tracks up to the back door. Once his digits wrapped around the metal knob, he found it was unlocked. Still carrying all of his shit, Luca was sure to check each nook and cranny while Andy made herself comfortable. Even though his clothes were wet, the immediate shelter from cold winds and snow provided relief. Luca felt oddly warm, probably due to the stark contrast of traversing through treacherous weather conditions. Once he was sure the coast was clear the man began moving furniture against the doors and closing window blinds.

October 18th, 2018
8:00pm
Suburbia

Hours had passed.

Andy had switched her positioning various times to try and get as much warmth out of Luca as possible. He initially held the side of her body close to his own. Then Andy’s hand made its way across his back. Soon after, he felt the woman’s opposite arm wrapped around his stomach. Eventually that hand would move from across his stomach to his inner-thigh. The man felt the woman’s fingertips dig up underneath the portion of the briefs that had been covering a few inches of his leg. It was the only clothing he had on. As her hand continued its climb, Luca wasn’t bothered by Andy searching him for warmth. Rather, he felt bad for her.

It wasn’t going to be a good night for either of them, but Luca was used to suffering.

Andy’s head would move from Luca’s arm to his lap. The same arm that she had wrapped around the man’s back moved to underneath her head. Moments later Luca’s legs were completely separated. This was because Andy had sat up and literally spread his legs apart to sit in-between them. She scooted back into Luca as far as she could, before physically grabbing his arms and wrapping them around her. Then she grabbed the edges of the blanket around Luca and pulled them up over herself, so the two were wrapped up in some sort of burrito. Truly, the softest form of tortilla there ever was. The result of Andy pushing herself backwards between Luca’s legs made him feel unwarranted sensations.

Staring at the fire and thinking about his shituation changed to Luca thinking about grandma’s armpits. Jellybeans. Fat, old men with boulderous, gargantuan tummies. Hairy noses. Waffles. Luca did everything he could to think about anything that would help avoid one of the top 5 most awkward conversations of his life. However, the cold beast that was Andy was not yet so easily satisfied. No, little did the Italian know, this wasn’t even her final form.

Finally, Andy was cradling Luca. He was cross-legged, allowing the girl to sit in his lap with her legs wrapped tightly around his back. Andy’s arms were wrapped around his torso, right underneath his arms. Her face was nuzzled into his neck, to the point where the man could feel her dry lips pressing against the skin right above his collarbone. Luca’s arms had been wrapped around her back, while he continued to watch the flames dance within the confines of the fireplace. That conversation that he desperately wanted to avoid minutes ago was unavoidable at this point. If they lived through this, it was something he would surely have to face.

Suddenly, freezing to death didn’t seem so bad.

Maj

 

[Brax]

Bullets ricocheted through the air as Tre turned a tight corner. His feet slid over the layers of snow and ice as he continued his forward progress. A building immediately to his left provided him with a way to gain some leverage. Using a bit of his quick reaction time, Tre hopped up onto a closed dumpster, using its height to propel himself further up the side of the brick wall and grasp a metal ladder leading up to a fire escape. As two hazmat soldiers made their way around the very same corner of the alleyway that Tre had used to avoid them, he silently creeped up the steps. He kept his back against the brick wall of the apartment housing as the two men split up and began checking around his immediate radius. If they had looked up, they would miss him - he was not only too far back against the wall for them to see, but he was also crouching. It was a bad visual angle for them. A rather large machete’s grip had been firmly planted in the boy’s right palm. His breathing was still.

Tre had been living at his mother’s house for a few months prior to the outbreak. The woman had always been a superstitious to a fault, but before the fall of the Auroran populous, she had become increasingly depressed. Her mental deterioration was evident to Tre, who tried his best to keep her in good spirits. The boy had spent a majority of his life with his father, who was responsible for raising him. However, he was no longer alive. Even if he was, the only thing he would be destined to see was white walls for the rest of his life. Tre had been sad but re-appropriated that energy to focus on his one living blood relative left. When his mother lost her job, Tre took back to the streets in order to continue procuring some sort of revenue for the two. Without it, they would inevitably lose their home. He had gone a few days without eating, multiple times as a result. Asking Luca for help wasn't an option. The day that the middle school quarantine had been announced, his mother shot herself in the head. Tre had been out for forty-eight hours prior before he came back home to find her.

When she came back to live as a zombie, Tre found it difficult to accept. He had taken so many lives before, but this was the one life he couldn’t find himself taking. She had been rabid and obviously wanted to cause him harm. The teen kept her isolated in the room she died in - the master bedroom. A closed door separated the two for quite a few hours, before a man named Warren came to the door. Tre didn’t answer it. The large man eventually came inside to find the teen on the couch of his living room, in an upright fetal position. Both of Tre’s feet had been on the couch cushion, providing a dirt stain as he hung his head between his knees. Without a word, Warren took care of his deceased mother. Then he picked Tre up and carried him out of his home. As the minutes turned to hours, Tre eventually learned that Warren had visited his mother’s house on request from his late father. The two had met in prison and had shared a cell, eventually forming a bond. Warren found respect in the way that Tre’s dad carried himself. His own selflessness had saved Warren’s life quite a few times. Part of Warren’s tribute to his father was to begrudgingly look after Tre, to ensure he didn’t walk the same path that he had.

Warren was far too late, but the world was different now. It had been a few days since that conversation.

The two men in hazmat suits reconvened in front of the fire escape. Both had discussed that they would have to continue pursuing the boy, on orders from some guy whom Tre didn’t know. It mattered very little. The night sky was illuminated by a few street lights; the ones that were still intact. Snow continued to fall. With these two guys constantly on his tail, there was no way that Tre was going to be able to find cover for the rest of the night. So, he did the only thing he could think of at the time. He slowly lifted up one of his legs and slipped his shoe off with his free hand. Then he grasped the lip and tossed it forward into the darkness. It hit the ground with a thud, forcing the conversation between both hazmat soldiers to cease. Both men turned their guns to the source of the sound, which was in the opposite direction of Tre. That was when he decided to make his move. Lunging forward, he used the same hand to swiftly toss himself over the ledge of the fire escape.

Tre slashed the machete vertically downward as he neared the ground. The thick blade sliced through the right bicep of one of the soldiers, forcing him to drop the rifle he was holding. As the limb hit the snow, Tre did as well; rolling quickly to avoid the second soldier, who had pointed his gun a second late and opened fire. The cries of the soldier who had lost his arm had turned into blood-curdling gurgles as multiple bullets struck through his vest and neck, easily piercing flesh. Keeping with his momentum, Tre skidded out of his roll. He turned on a dime and slashed diagonally at the second hazmat soldier’s leg just as he witnessed his comrade’s body drop. The blade got caught in the man’s calf.

He ripped it out of the man’s leg, tearing muscle and ligaments in the process. Blood leaked off of the blade, staining the snow around his feet before Tre cocked his arm back and stabbed the man directly through the side of his neck. He was sure to slowly push the machete all the way through before slashing outward. The hazmat soldier’s head continued to hang on by the skin on back, though it looked a bit mangled as he spread out across the snow-covered pavement. Tre cleaned his Machete’s blade off with the slow before placing it back into its hilt. Then the teen grabbed a bit of snow with one of his blood-covered hand, dropping the stained remnants onto the ground just as Warren turned the corner, huffing and puffing.

“Yo, look at this shit.” Tre beckoned as he turned to face the man with an unenthused expression. He lifted his foot and pointed to it.

“I got my fuckin’ sock wet.”

TheTreForce

 

[BloodThunder27]

Shinoa Bradford
Age: 17
Location: Lodge Interactions: Lelianna FireMaiden , Milly Rumble Fish
Mentioned: N/A

Pregnancy Progression: 39 Weeks, 2 Days

Countdown to Childbirth

RestingShinoa only nodded when Lelianna reassured her that no one else was going to die. Since she didn't really know Rogue, she couldn't really say anything. To be fair, she only met the woman last night on the way to the lodge. The nurse they left to go upstairs, presumingly to tend to something else. Frowning, the young mother looked down at her belly, worried about the baby. Seeing that there was a zombie attack, here was to hoping that there wouldn't be another one. Because the Zombies had found their way there, she was worried that they may show up again during labor and delivery, a thought that left extremely frightened because she would be unable to defend herself from a zombie if it were to target her. She had lucked out back in the city, but it wasn't going to be long until that luck ran out. Soon, she turned her attention to Milly. Since the attack, the younger girl seemed scared.

The feeling of wanting to go home did hit Shinoa. Like how Milly missed her Mother, Shinoa missed her Grandmother who was still out there, missing. With no way to go find or get ahold of her, Shinoa was worried altogether. What left her even more scared was the thought of not being able to see her Father ever again. She then proceeded to move closer to Milly and placed her arm around her shoulder. "Its gonna be okay. The monsters are all gone now. We can rest and...watch the snow." She smiled a little, hoping to calm the tension within their environment.

 

[Rumble Fish]

Colt flicked away her cigarette, the butt instantly extinguishing in the freezing white stuff. She blew out through her nose in two jets of a mix of steam and smoke. Her mind felt floaty from the wine, but it was a kind that she could cope with. She could still think. Colt was aware of what the others thought of her when it came to her vices. But she didn’t care. It was this or potentially have an extreme reaction from withdrawal. The woman frowned a little as her mind travelled back. She had attempted to stop before, a couple of months ago. But she had only managed for three days before she had been hospitalised. Colt could not remember what had happened. She had been walking down the street to the store, shaky, sweating and with an extreme headache when the ground suddenly came rushing up to her face. That was it. Of course, the doctors advised her to seek out help, but there was no way. Why would she do that? It was a fixable problem without going cold turkey, right?

Unscrewing the flask’s lid, Colt went to drink from it but she could tell from the weight that it was almost empty. With a deep sigh she finished it off before putting it away. She’d have to find a way to fill it without anyone noticing. As far as she knew, nobody had noticed. She shook her head and walked back inside. Snow was strange. She hadn’t seen it in over a decade and it was only after the tension had eased that she could actually appreciate it. She was relieved to see that nothing was still out there. They had killed all of the Things. Hopefully there weren’t more.

After the afternoon, Colt had remained behind the scenes and kept an eye on everyone, ensuring nobody was hurt and everyone was doing what they were supposed to. She could tell quite a few were distressed over what had happened with Rogue, herself included. If she had paid more attention, she could possibly have prevented this from happening. She let out a cough as she went into the living room. The fire was on, warming up the room, but it was still cold and she had to think of ways to keep everyone together and warm. Colt pulled up her cargo-pants as she looked around.

“Um… Can I have y’all in the living room for a few minutes?” she said out-loud, wanting to be heard by everyone in the house. She waited until people came before she continued, she did not want to talk out loud like this but she knew she had to. She was put in charge. She had to think carefully about what she was going to say. This was a shitty day for herself and for everyone else and the last thing she wanted was to accidentally rile them up.

“It… doesn’t look like the others are getting’ back cause of the storm.” She began, “We’ll need to give this place a proper defence. Marcus, Ivan; tomorrow, I want you both to go outside, just around the perimeter of the lodge. Find some suitable trees and chop ‘em down. There’s an axe on a log outside. We’ll pull all our efforts together to at least try and build a fence of some kind. It’ll give us an advantage if another assault happens. I’ll help in every way I can. And if anyone else can pitch in; it’d be a mighty big help.” Colt herself knew she could help them, having grown up on her father and extended family’s ranch, she knew a thing or two about putting up fences. She just needed this place to be safe. That attack from the horde was a wake-up call.

She continued to look at the group, “Ralph, Leli and Jenna,” she gestured a hand towards them, “I know y’all probably know this, but I want y’all in charge of our medicine and food supplies. Write everything down, ration accordingly. Some of us need more than others. If any of y’all need anything; speak up. I don’ care if it’s a fuckin’ cut if it is just one sneeze, I want it looked at.” She was still thinking about what had happened with Rogue. They needed to avoid this happening again.

She then turned to Brian, “Check out our armoury and weapons. If we are low on anything, I want to know.” She then turned to the group, “That goes for all of you.” She took a moment to pause. She was already thoroughly uncomfortable with talking for this long. She wanted to leave it at that. But… it wouldn’t feel right. She wanted to hole herself in that room again, away from them all. But she had this position thrust upon her. She remembered Luca telling Brain before he left “If she can’t meet my standards, you will need to make sure this lodge stays intact.” And before he left the lodge, “Until she fucks up, Colt is in charge.” Until. Until. He had such little faith that it was infuriating. Call it pride or whatever, but there was no way she was going to validate his bullshit and arrogant assumptions of her.

She sat on the arm-rest of the sofa, “Also, I feel that one, or two of us should take a watch at night. But, you all did a lot today so I will take the first watch tonight.” Her expression did not change throughout this whole exchange from a stoic gaze. This was not a good deed. It was necessary. Colt sighed heavily through her nose. She wanted to talk about Rogue, but she just couldn’t. What was there to say that hadn’t been said before? She had to think forward. But her mind kept connecting the parallels between Rogue and Sasha, she could not escape it. But she knew that if she were to start talking, she would end up spilling the beans on everything, and that was something she did not want. She took in a deep inhale in order to steady her breathing. Colt was convinced that this was going badly, words were never her strong point. The only reason she could right now was due to the nature of giving jobs and setting boundaries, things Colt was more accustomed to.

"Michael and Ray, right now... all I ask of y'all is to help. Someone is strugglin' ya help 'em." she turned to the two men. She knew she had not given them specific jobs, but she knew very little about Ray's abilities and she still felt a lot of distrust towards Michael. That man would have to work very hard in order to convince her otherwise. She looked down at the two girls on the sofa, as Shiona asked Milly if she wanted to watch the snow. She looked to the window, seeing the snow was falling once again, but softer. She turned her gaze back to the pair. She did not expect Shiona to work, not in her state and Milly was too young.

“Y’all just get comfortable. Stay warm.” She spoke stoically to the pair before standing up with her arms folded as she faced the group, “If any of y’all have any concerns or ideas; now’s the time.” She said, looking through them all. She wanted their impute. Her anxiety was already shooting from speaking for so long. As she stood, the woman scratched her neck several times and kept putting her hands in and out of her pockets. As long as their next words were coherent and logical, then that would be good enough.
FireMaiden King Vioogra Hyped_Taco The Mad Queen BloodThunder27 TheTreForce ​

 

[King Vioogra]

Ivan and Colt

Ivan sobbed quietly for a few more minutes before clearing his throat and wiping his eyes, standing up to his full height and taking in a deep breath as he finally regained his composure before stepping onto the porch and approaching the door. Fresh snow flaked his hair and shoulders when he stepped in, still sniffling as his eyes and cheeks basically shone red. He opened the door and walked in and was able to hear the beginning of Colt’s speech, pausing lightly as to not interrupt until she was finished. When she talked about him and Marcus chopping down trees, he gave a short glance to the guy before moving his gaze back over to Colt. He continued to listen to the talk, learning the names of the people he lived with by reactions when their names were spoken and stuff like that. When she was finally done giving them their pep-talk, he gave a bit of a smirk before walking towards her. He noticed how much more powerful she was now. From their past interactions, he thought by now she’d either be neck deep in booze or having an anxiety attack, or both. He would never tell her this of course, because he very much liked his jugular vein intact,and his spleen untouched.


“Hey, Colt. I know you said wait until tomorrow, but I’m gonna go ahead and chop some wood so we can have a fire tonight. Give everyone a who hasn’t had a chance to meet each other an opportunity, and also making sure everyone’s warm. That okay?”


He said, speaking pretty quickly as he ran his hands through his hair, tracking the white snow that contrasted his black hair perfectly as he looked down at her. The snow that had sprinkled his shoulders, back, and pant thighs melted quickly in the cabin’s limited heat, giving the clothes that covered them a bit of a worn look.


--

Colt had moved to her rucksack, hoping to find the whisky bottle she needed to refill her flask when Ivan spoke up. She turned to face the man and was instantly aware of the redness of his eyes, as if he had been crying. She frowned a little but allowed him to speak. He seemed eager to chop wood tonight, despite her orders. She darted her eyes a little.


“I’ll be damned if ya think yer goin’ out there alone.” she grumbled before sighing, “I’ll come. Just to keep an eye on ya. Make sure we aren’t out too long.” she said with a fold of her arms. She wanted to give him an earful for the question, but that would make her look pretty awful in front of the others. She grabbed her rucksack and her glock.


“Only a hour. Okay? I want everyone in here by nine. No exceptions.”


--


“Sure thing boss. You can get a lot done in an hour, y’know?”


He said with a smile as he took off his jacket and walked outside. He was basically conditioned to the cold but it was all but bliss to him when he stepped out into the brisk air and gave a short “ahh.” He walked over to the log that the axe was buried in, his feet crunching under the freshly laid snow before he grabbed the axe by the handle and wrenched it free. It took a few pulls before it came free, and it came free with a jolt that sent Ivan back a foot or two. He noticed as Colt was grabbing the whiskey and gave a short sigh.


“I hope you plan on sharing that at least. Hell we all could use some after today. Except kid and the pregnant girl, of course.”


He said with a short chuckle as he picked up one of the logs that lay beside the strump from a tree that had been cut down long before. He placed the small chunk of log on the stump and held the axe in both hands. He adjusted his footing to where he wouldn’t have to use his shot leg much before swinging the axe back and up, before swinging it down hard on the log.


--


Colt pulled her coat further around herself as they ventured out. When he asked about the whisky, the woman froze. Shit. He noticed. She sighed as she slowly tipped some of the whisky from the bottle into her flask. She looked at him as he asked about sharing it.


“...Maybe a bit.” she sighed as she put it away, “Don’t trust drunk folk with axes.” she added. They were already in a horror situation, she didn’t need a drunk maniac with an axe to deal with as well as Things and Hazzies. She watched as he got to work, chopping the wood.


“Hey.” she said, her tone lower, “I saw ya standin’ outside. Y’all okay?” she furrowed her brow a little. The assault on the lodge had been extreme for all of them. She made a mental note to go and ask around if anyone else was particularly shaken from it.


--


Ivan was midway through grabbing another log to chop when she mentioned that she’d seen him crying. He froze as he’d put his hand around the log, his eyes widening a bit. He quickly searched for something to say before sighing quietly. He couldn’t think of anything, so he might as well tell her the truth.


“Yeah I’m fine. It’s just… being behind a rifle again brought a lot back. From when I was serving, from when my dad taught me how to use one, stuff like that. And… I guess it all hit me at once that I never really got to mourn he died. I just… never had the time.”


He said, his speech turning into a ramble as he started venting to Colt. It was feeling he didn’t recognize, being able to spill everything to someone in this way.


“After he died, my mom fell apart. And I was the only child so there wasn’t anyone else. No extended family, no friends, nothing. I had to take care of us, for so long!”


He said, the last sentence coming out in a choked up mess as Ivan felt a sting in his eyes. Shit, he was crying again. He quickly wiped the tears away from his face before they had a chance to stream down his face, his quickening breaths making trails from his mouth as they came out.


--


Colt’s eyes widened a little as he began releasing all of his emotions at once, speaking about his father and family. She was not expecting this reaction from him. And she did not really know what to say about it. Comforting people was not something Colt was familiar with. All she knew from serving was, when someone shied or cowed from danger, becoming emotional, it was usually screamed out of them. Like Luca had done with her. But… she wasn’t Luca. So no. She was not going to do that.


Not knowing what else to do, she took a step forward, put a hand on his shoulder and giving it a couple of pats before taking the axe from him. She began to work on the tree he had been chopping before he spoke. She wanted to make the man feel better. But she just did not know how.


--


Ivan cleared his throat quickly before looking over at her chopping the tree. He smiled a bit before waiting clearing his throat again and chuckling at her. He could tell by the way she didn’t say anything that she didn’t have much experience helping other people out.


“You don’t have to do that. You’re already going to be up all night. Might as well keep the energy you’ve got, whatever's left of it at least.”


He said as he cracked his neck quietly and took the axe back. He stepped forward again, his feet crunching and sinking into the snow as he rubbed his hands on the hold points of the axe to warm them up. As he approached the tree again, he looked back at her with a genuine smile that shone through his post, crying face.


“You don’t have to worry about me. You’ve already got enough on your shoulders.”


--


Colt had gotten a fair bit in when Ivan then took the axe from her to continue. As he chopped, she sneakily took a drink from her flask. After what happened this morning, she didn’t want anyone to see it, even though Ivan already noticed. She rubbed her head as it started to hurt. Shit. But she could not drink more. Not yet at least. As he then said she did not need to worry about him, she gulped a little.


“Well, I kinda have to. But, if you insist.” she said with a huff, steam coming from her nose.

--


Ivan chuckled again as she huffed at him, turning back to the tree as he continued to chop. Sweat formed on him, quickly coming off as steam in the cold air before Ivan took a deep breath and said while chopping.


“Ты милый, когда ты расстроен.” (You’re cute when you’re frustrated)


He said quietly before chuckling a bit and continuing with his chopping. Ivan stopped after a bit and stretched back, his back cracking loudly as all the vertebrae in his back popped in unison, forcing the man to let out a short “ah!” He immediately chuckled again as he swung around in place, cracking his back some more.


“Self-made chiropractor.”


He said quietly before getting back to work


--


Colt allowed him to get back to work, all while she checked her watch every now and again. She glanced back at him as he made a joke about how he had cracked his back. Colt smirked slightly before looking away again. She knew what that felt like. She watched as the snow continued to fall, resting on her cap and shoulders.


“Y’know. I haven’t seen snow since I was fifteen.” she said, mostly to herself. It was true though. Despite how terrible the blizzard had been, she was still in awe over the snow. Though, it was beginning to get heavier so she would try and get Ivan to finish up soon.


--


“That so? Now that I think about it I haven’t seen much of it since I came to the states. Before then, by god it snowed everyday.”


He said with a grunt as he continued to chop away. Iwas a decently thin three so a few more chops brought the thing down. Ivan quickly started chopping the tree into logs for a fire, since he also noticed that the snow was starting to come down hard again.


“Once this blizzard rolls over we should go look for Andy and Luca. Given Leliana gives me permission to leave the house.”


He said with a bit of a laugh before finishing the statement off with a grunt as he brought the axe down again. He was able to luckily chop the tree up pretty quickly and started grabbing at the logs, bundling them together with his arm before smacking the axe into its new stump. He turned to Colt, covered in sweat and snow, and spoke quickly.


“Cmon, let’s get back inside before the wood gets too wet to burn. We’ll come out tomorrow with everyone and have a snowball fight or something, get death off their minds.”


He said before walking past her towards the cabin.


--


Colt looked at him as he suggested going after Andy and Luca. She frowned a little and growled under her breath in an uncertain tone. She was not sure as to what to think about that. It was not safe for any of them to leave the lodge. But he had a point. Though, she would not be able to leave herself.


“Let’s wait out longer. I don’ wanna risk anybody’s lives out there. I wanna keep everyone together unless otherwise.” she said with a sigh as she grabbed wood to bring inside. As he mentioned a snowball fight, again it was met with a slight frown, “Well. If it’s calm enough.” She honestly felt like a mother telling her kids they could play outside only until it gets heavier. And she didn’t like it.


Walking inside, she looked around to see if everyone was still okay before handing the rest of the wood to Ivan. She walked a little closer to him.


“Oi. Don’ worry about what ya said outside. I won’ blab to anyb’dy.” she said before walking off.


--


Ivan took the logs Colt handed to him, also eyeing the room a bit. He shivered slightly because of the quick temperature change, before looking down at her when she spoke about what happened outside. A brief, but thankful smile crossed over him as he watched her walk away.


“Thanks.”


He said quietly before making his way over to the fireplace in the den. He opened the chain guard that covered it and set the logs inside carefully. After getting them all into place, he stood up and walked into the kitchen, raiding the drawers for matches or a lighter. He found a box of matches in on of the drawers and grabbed a magazine off of the counter to bring with him. Once back at the fireplace, he sat down cross legged before he began tearing pages out of the magazine and stuffing them in between the logs before taking a match from the box and striking it. The flame lit up quickly and Ivan held it to one of the sheets of magazine. Once a proper flame caught, he closed the chain guard and stood, making sure a poker was nearby so he could tend to the flames.​

 

[Rumble Fish]

Milly had spent the rest of that day desperately trying to distract herself from what had happened in the top room. Jigsaws, drawing and other things but nothing stuck, and the lack of anything to fully focus on only made the youngster more anxious. She had tried to go for a sleep later in the afternoon (she got intense headaches if she didn’t, her sensitive senses needing a break from the weight of day) but couldn’t. The fear of more monsters kept her awake. By the time evening came, her head was pounding and all Milly could do was sit on the sofa with half-shut eyes, and clinging to her bear while desperately trying to recite every word from ‘Toy Story’ word-for-word to herself while imagining the animation in her sore head.

“Oh, great, great. Yeah, and if anyone attacks us we can blink 'em to death…” she muttered but froze as Colt asked for everyone to come into the living room. While she was not speaking loud, Milly still covered her ears, because of her headache, it was almost visible with her temples thumping. She looked to Shiona and shimmied closer to her. Feeling particularly vulnerable she was relieved when the older girl put an arm around her and pulled her closer. Milly leaned against him as she kept her ears covered the whole time.

She paid little attention to what was being said until Shiona spoke to her, assuring her the monsters were gone, and suggested they could watch the snow. She didn’t get a chance to answer at first as Colt, while giving everyone else proper jobs within the lodge, she simply told the pair to be warm and stay comfortable. She just gave the woman a nod, she just hoped the ex-marine wouldn’t feel offended to her having her ears covered. As Colt then left with Ivan, she looked to Shiona, finally able to answer.

“I…I’d like to.” She said as she preened her bear’s head softly as she looked outside. As she did, her baby blue eyes lit up a little. She fumbled with her blanket anxiously as she built up the courage to ask Shiona, “Think… Think tomorrow if… if it’s ok,” she paused. It felt really wrong, speaking out like this. She was supposed to do as grownups say, and don’t question it. But it was something she really wanted. A mix of her headache and the anxiety about asking caused a couple of tears to fall, though she did not make any sound indicating that she was crying.

“If the weather is better,” she stopped again, “Think I could, maybe, play in the snow?” she looked to Shiona mostly, afraid to ask Colt. She was never allowed to play in snow, even before her mother forbade her from going outside. She did not even want to go fully outside, but just on the porch. The youngster was desperate to forget about the monsters. She just wanted to play. She hugged her bear and kept the blanket wrapped around her. Despite the promise of fire, she was still very cold.
BloodThunder27 ​

 

[The Mad Queen]

Doctor Ralph Fisher​

"Thank you for the offer but, I will manage. Check up on the others, see if they're hurt and just make sure nobody enters the back room upstairs."
He glanced over to the shut door "I moved her body in there already. Nobody else should have to see it, but especially Milly." He whispered
He went through the house, taking a cooking apron from the kitchen.
It, as well as the disposable plastic gloves and mask found in his coat pockets would have to do on top of the supplies he'd been handed by Leliana as he doubted the lodge had the appropriate materials for performing an autopsy. The bag did have a stainless steel scalpel though, which he was grateful for. The only other alternative would have been using a kitchen knife, which either would be to dull or too large to make the right incisions.

He took some extra supplies, such as a steel bowl that was probably used for mixing and a kitchen scale.

During his collection, he took great care as to not get noticed by the others. He was sure the more experienced members of the group, such as the ex-military personnel would be able to detect him even if he wasn't making any noise at all but Colt had already given him the okay to proceed with the autopsy.
It was the others he was worried about. They had seen the hosts descend upon the lodge in bloody carnage already and the last thing Fisher wanted was to add to that with even the thought of him cutting up a woman they had all met, even briefly.

When they got out of this hell, they would all need extensive therapy.

Sneaking back upstairs, he placed the apron on, tied the mask around his mouth and pushed the door to the back room open. He'd already taken care to make sure that Rogue's body, and the surrounding room was as prepared as it could be. Spare bedsheets covered the table she lay on and the surrounding floor.

It would all have to be burned later. Even if they deep cleaned it, it was too great a risk.
Letting out a heavy sigh, he pulled back the sheet covering Rogue's body.

"I'm sorry, little one. We'll lay you to rest, properly once...Once I find out how this happened." He muttered, his voice slightly muffled behind the mask.
With that, he got to work.

He would be gone for several hours, making little more than a peep as he worked on the body. Every now and again he found himself tempted to call out a new finding or ask to he handed a piece of equipment but, he stopped himself.

Examining the brain, Fisher's eyes widened.
"Elaine! I've got something!"
He spun around "El..."

The room was quiet, cold and empty, his only companion being the corpse of the young woman with red hair.
Elaine had helped him during the autopsies, finding things even Fisher would miss at first glance. That's why she had volunteered to look at the body of the Jane Doe and he'd agreed.

In doing so, he'd signed her death warrant.
"Elaine..." He sighed, glancing at his feet. He looked at the bloodied knife in his hand and tossed it across the room, the stainless steel clattering as it struck the wall and fell to the floor.

"Get back to work you goddamn child." He muttered to himself, looking at the brain again.
He would be in there until the afternoon was over and started to clean up. He made stitches in Rogue's head with what he'd been given, covering her up and wrapping the body in a sheet.

Everything else went into a tightly knotted black plastic bag he'd taken from the kitchen. It would have to be emptied out and burned later, but that have to wait until the blizzard let up.

Washing his hands for a solid five minutes in hot, soapy water and placing his coat back on, Fisher headed back downstairs. He had his orders from Colt, but they would have to wait a few minutes.
"I performed an autopsy this afternoon and what I'm about to share will be, grizzly. To say the least. If you don't want to hear about it, then leave now."
He waited a few moments, giving people enough time to make up their minds while also making sure that Milly wasn't in the room.

"It was on Rogue." He took a deep breath before continuing "She...Died of a subarachnoid haemorrhage, likely brought on by a brain aneurysm. There's no way anyone could have noticed it without the use of a CAT scan and even the surface level symptoms are easy to miss, especially during a time such as this. It's important that nobody blames themsel..."

He stopped himself briefly, noticing as Jenna silently stormed out of the room.

"But the girl did not die in vain. I discovered some things about this parasite and how it affects the brain. Things we can use when. Yes, when we get out of this city and bring what's happened here to the government. Even if the US won't listen, Canada or Mexico or somewhere will listen and from there we'll be able to fight this thing properly, to kill it."
He brought a fist down into his open palm
"Long and short is that even after death, some parts of the brain remain active while others were shut off completely. I also noticed an increased rate of decay around the hypothalamus, the parietal lobe and frontal lobe in particular. As if these parts of the brain decayed in response to the parasite."

He stopped himself once more. There was no way everyone in the room knew what all of those terms meant.

"Well, the first one controls some key responses the body has such as releasing hormones but in terms of the infected the most important is that that the tiny cog in the most complex machine on earth controls thirst, regulation of body temperature, blood pressure appetite, as well as circadian rhythms. That's physical and behavioural changes that occur on a daily cycle. For example, being awake during the day and sleeping at nighttime is a circadian rhythm related to the presence or absence of light. So it plays an important role in fatigue, needing to sleep."

"The parietal has so many function and it's key for how we respond to pain and heat, which proves a working theory I've had since I first encountered one of these things: The hosts don't feel pain."

"As for the frontal lobe, well...It's like a human control panel, at least for our personalities and how we communicate as a species. It's a major part of what makes us...Us. Emotional expression, problem solving, memory, language, judgement, sexual behaviours...It seemed to have decayed the most, as well. There's been cases of people surviving damage to the lobe and undergoing intense personality changes. Quicker to anger, being more aggressive and needlessly putting themselves in danger due to our control panel taking a hit. If that part of the brain failed completely and I do mean it ceased to function altogether we could all but lose so much of ourselves."

"So in conclusion, these hosts. And yes, I use the term host as zombie sounds childish don't tire, don't feel pain, don't get thirsty and won't reel in response to heat. An enemy that doesn't tire, doesn't stop and doesn't feel and is spread through an airborne parasite that attacks the brain and turns the body into a puppet in order to spread itself."

He shook his head "If I was a brain surgeon or had the right equipment I could find out more. Maybe even develop a vaccine."
He pointed to the snow outside "So I say we wait for this blizzard to clear up, barricade this house, lay low and then, when we're all fit to travel we leave this city and bring all of this...
The war crimes, my team's findings. We bring it to the UN, to the World Health Organisation and we end it."

Jenna
​

​

Jenna had spent the best part of the afternoon sitting in one of the rooms away from people, but accompanied by Cammy. After a few minutes of the dog pawing at her leg, the former vet gave in and allowed Cammy to sit with her on the chair.
Like most large dogs, Cammy did not give a damn about personal space and jumped onto Jenna's lap, lying across her and burying her head in one of the girl's arms.
Outside of the dog's company, there was one thing Jenna was grateful for: her phone charger.

While stitching up Rogue she'd put her mobile phone on charge so had a decent battery life left on the thing. She unlocked it with a code.
1305
The home screen was a Border Collie, one she knew well wrapped in a blanket of horizontal stripes, two light blue, two pink, and one white in the centre.
The photo had been taken on the anniversary of when she'd been shot and sent to Jenna by the owner. It didn't matter to him who she was, or had been. She'd saved his dog and that was it.

Placing earphones in, Jenna sat back on the chair and watched a memory in HD format.
Her dad had her eyes but not her hair, for a head of neatly cut brown hair rested instead. He wore a red apron, a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt and stood before an oven, cooking something.

Cooking wasn't the right word, he had set fire to something.
"Dad. What the hell?"
"The instructions clearly said put the turkey in at..."

The house erupted as the smoke alarm started to go off, sending offscreen dogs into a frenzy of whining and barking.
"Oh, for God's sake!" The chef cried
"Well, darlings. Welcome to the steam. Family Christmas and dad's burnt the turkey, the dogs are freaking. All in all, it's looking pretty grrrreeeat so far."

She approached the chef
"Say hi dad."
"Hey, um. Darlings." He smiled "Stay in school, don't do drugs and be nice to your grandparents, especially this time of year."
"So settle this debate for us. Once and for all: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?"
"Is the Pope Catholic?" He gave a hearty chuckle "Can I cook turkey?"
"Well that last part is deb..."
"Hey! I did a good job last year. It's just you all are seeing..."
"You gave up half way through and we ended up ordering Chinese food instead."

He grinned
"Well damn. The cat's out of the bag now. Get it?"
"Dad stop."
"Because you're a vet..."
"Please no."

After another minute or two, she shut off the memory and moved onto another one. No internet, no phone signal. She was separated from home by snow, an army of the dead, the United States government and an ocean.
She curled up, clutching onto Cammy and letting out a heavy sigh. To save the battery on her phone, she switched it off.

Time flew in as she just sat with Cammy, only getting up once or twice to go to the bathroom. She couldn't let the dog run outside, with the blizzard and the threat of the dead so the dog did her business on the front porch.
She sighed, stretched her arms and legs and followed the others into the main room when called.

She'd been given a task, but that didn't matter. She could tell her time with the group was coming to an end, and she'd be thrown out as soon as the blizzard stopped. All it would take would be one word to Luca, and it wasn't like she didn't have it coming. Rogue was gone, she'd probably died of an infection caused by a shoddy job at Jenna's own hands.

She was emotional and stressed when working on the stitches, or maybe she'd missed a bullet fragment. Maybe there was another gunshot wound she'd missed altogether. Under fire and in the middle of a warzone between the living and the dead, it was very different from the operating table of a vet's. She'd missed something and another person had died because of it.

A CDC doctor, a few ex-military personnel and a nurse. The group would do fine, and she was both liability and a murderer anyway. Maybe Cammy could become a therapy dog to Milly too, if she could convince the dog to stay.
The sewers were her best bet. Even if they had a few zombies in them, she had a better chance down there than on the surface.

When Colt finished, Jenna listened to Fisher and actually turned to look at him when Rogue's name was mentioned. He delivered a bombshell.

It wasn't her fault. It never had been.

When the girl stormed out of the room it wasn't out of guilt or sadness, it was out of anger. She was angry at the parasite, at the government that was trying to cover up it's mistake but above all else, she was angry at herself.
Anger and sadness built up and she had left so as to not cause a scene.

As per usual, she buried it and redirected her anger somewhere else.
With the blizzard there was no way they could bury Rogue. It would have to wait. She'd been given a task, so for now that's what she was going to do. She made a start by looking for medical supplies.

Rumble Fish Soma Schicksal Hyped_Taco King Vioogra BloodThunder27 Brax FireMaiden

 

[Mynah]

Marty Kang (강준유)
18 October 2018

The skies had turned a little darker, casting a thin, blanket-like shadow over the greyish snow below. As he trudged through the cold sheets pelted all over the yellow grass and asphalt, Marty tried his best to avert his gaze from the red blotches and streaks lying all around, pulling his scarf tightly over his face to protect his nose from the biting cold and the stench of the dead. As he walked through the park, it became clear that to stay there was not at all a tenable option; it was far too open, for one, and on top of it all, it seemed as if a blizzard would start at any moment. To remain outside would be certain death, one way or another.

Lying a few paces away from where Marty stood was a light-skinned man of about fifty years, weakly begging for help; he had clearly suffered a spinal injury of some sort, for his entire body lay paralysed in the snow; dark bruises had formed under his eyes and behind his ears, with lines of diarrhoea streaming around his pelvic area and his penis standing erect. Marty could barely afford a moment’s glance at the man before he had to avert his gaze and continue walking along the path.
Barely had he taken a few small paces, however, when he felt an invisible force pulling him back to the dying man. Despite his total inability to do anything at all to save the man, something deep inside him compelled him to go back and watch over him, if only for the final few minutes of his life.

“Uncle”, he greeted the man solemnly, his voice faltering, “are you in pain?”

The man turned his head up to look at Marty, and then winced excruciatingly- it was then that Marty realised that talking to him (and thus causing him to turn his head subconsciously) probably wasn’t the best idea.
“It’s ok, it’s ok...” Marty then added, only to suddenly lose his wits. Of course it wasn’t ok. The poor man was dying, for God’s sake. Now the world had blurred around him, as he shakily placed a frigid hand on the man’s shoulder, attempting to offer some semblance of reassurance.

The man attempted to choke up a sentence, but instead only produced an incoherent gurgle. He flicked his eyes to look at Marty, frothing a gruesome mixture of saliva and cerebrospinal fluid from his nose at the mouth. And then...

“Jesus Christ!”

Marty was barely able to draw his hand away in time as the man’s eyes suddenly became blank and his head, pivoting on his neck and attempting to bite off several of his digits. The man (or whatever he had become) made to stand up, but due to its severed spinal cord, could only rotate its head and gurgle vengefully, as if Marty had somehow done him a grave injustice of some sort. Barely able to process the sudden change in the behaviour of the body before him, Marty slowly backed away, his mind engulfed in a flurry of unspeakably colourful emotions, and then made a run for it.
As he went back the same way he had come, back into the city from which he had come, the sound of an unpleasant commotion echoed down the rows of buildings. Screams rang out from indiscernible directions, followed by the deafening earthquakes of gunfire, almost sending palpable vibrations through the dirty white blankets of snow. Without time to rationalise his fear, Marty dove almost instinctively for cover behind a tree, his hands slamming against the frosty bark as he ground to an abrupt halt. (Now, he remembered, that he forgot to bring his gloves with him when he left his hotel room.)

By then, the commotion had died down already. From the corner of his eye, Marty could make out a few mangled bodies lying on the ground, still clad in hazmat suits, fresh arterial blood splashed messily across the ground. Two people stood down the street; one was a young boy, just slightly shorter than him, while the other was a massive hunk of muscle, chest cruelly stretching against his shirt.
Questions were swirling in Marty’s head like a hurricane, but against the discomfort of biting cold and his own gut rumbling, he hadn’t the energy to even consider the possible ramifications of his options. Living people were living people; against the dead, what, possibly, could go wrong?

Discreetly, but perhaps purposely conspicuous enough to catch the attention of the two without appearing to be too much of a threat, Marty wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck, and then hastily walked down the street, avoiding eye contact with the big muscular man and the small boy.

Brax TheTreForce

 

[FireMaiden]

​

Location: The Jordan Lodge
Interaction: The Mad Queen (Ralph) King Vioogra (Ivan) Rumble Fish (Colt)
Mentioned/In The Area: Soma Schicksal (Marcus) TheTreForce (Ray) Hyped_Taco (Micheal) BloodThunder27 (Brian) The Mad Queen (Jenna) BloodThunder27 (Shinoa) Rumble Fish (Milly)

She had to admit, not being able to take part of the autopsy was a little disappointing. Mainly, she would have liked to have talked to Ralph on the few ideas she's had already, but, with a sigh she handed the medical bag over without a word. Her disapointment was maybe shown on her face, since she was aware that nobody had gotten injured or they would have said something already if they wanted to keep fighting. You couldn't do that while battling an infection, or open wound. This left her with nothing to do. Leliana hated the fact her hands weren't busy, as she slowly walked to one of the windows to watch for anything outside, she couldn't help but feel the tingle that came with her nerves. It was constantly gnawing at her, like a dog on a chew toy, it wouldn't leave her alone. In times of stress, she's been able to train herself to push it down, but it was starting to take hold of her. Leliana needed to do something before she started shaking, and so she make a quick turn to the kitchen. Trash bags, gloves, bleach, and the broom as well as some rags, she didn't stay downstairs long enough to hear mish of Colt's speech as she was up stairs before she had even really started. Because if there was one thing Leliana was sure she knew how to do, it was clean. And working down at Moe's, she had cleaned up blood, vomit, and other things she would rather not mention countless times because the people who visited didn't seem to know basic human decency. Espeically the ones who would constantly try grabbing her ass. At least she wouldn't have to worry about that right now.

Knowing that Ralph had moved the body was good, it meant she didnt have to worry about it, but there was some blood out in the hallway, which Leliana would get later. Entering the room she had claimed, she sighed heavily through her nose. Tge young womna had lost track of time while spacing out down stairs, lost in her own thoughts and was now dealing with dried blood. In some spots, semi-frozen. She could still clean that though, and Leliana got to work. The first thing she did was sweep, making sure she got every peice of broken glass up and into a garbage bag lined with paper towels she put inside another garbage bag to make sure nobody would get cut on it. Rouge's blood was all over the glass, and dead man's blood, sick or not, wasn't good. Nobody should be risking getting it in any cuts which is why she had found some gloves as well, and had her Moe's employee jacket pulled down over her still banaged forearms. Honestly, those cuts should have scabbed over by now, but Leliana was gonna wait longer to take the gauze off just incase, since her forearms were impaled. (Thanks Ivan). Anyway, after making sure all the glass was up, she doused a rag in bleach, and began scrubbing the blood off the floor and anywhere it had splattered on the walls, and any furiniture. That took a bit longer than expected, since she hadn't ever dealt with brain matter before, nor did she expect to get sick half way through.

While getting the large spot where Rouge's body had been laying, Leliana was hit with a sudden and very intense wave of nausea that stopped her cold. Sweat formed on the back of her neck, her face paled as she slowly sat up pulling the large trash bag to her right as she lost it. She lost breaskfast, any water, everything she had in her stomach until Leliana only sat there for a solid five minutes dry heaving as her body tried expelling something that wasn't there. The girl was silently hoping that the sounds of her choked breaths weren't heard by anybody. "Fuck." Unsteady with her entire body tense and shaking, she sat there motionless in the middle of the room that only smelled like bleach and blood, until her body relaxed enough to let her move. Leliana continued to clean, ignoring what her body was telling her. She had felt this a hundred times before, there was no need to worry about it now, she just needed to calm down. Yeah, she just needed to calm down. She didn't have anything for fix it with anyway.

After about an hour, she was done, tossing the rags she had used in the trash bag before tying the bag shut and leaving the room. She shut the door behind her, knowing that she would go back and rinse it later, but for now she should let it air out, Leliana decended the steps with the bag as Iavn was standing up from putting something in the fireplace. "Hey! You can't be doing that, your knee isn't healed enough!" Leliana scolded, looking to the nearby Colt, "Don't let him do anything to strenuous, he shouldn't even be walking around without help. He dislocated his knee cap, and without a proper scan, there is absolutly no way to tell just how badly he messed the muscles and cartilage," She said, walking by them to the front door that she opened and put the bag in her hand outside. "And everyone be careful with that, I need a warmer jacket, but that's hazardous materials, stuff we can't burn but we can put...somewhere, I'll figure it out." Her voice had trailed off as Ralph entered the room, gathering everyone's attention with the results of Rogue's autopsy. With her little spell earlier, Leliana is now glad she didn't get a chance to help him, instead taking his findings second hand just find. Rouge's death was sudden, random, and not triggered by anything related to the parasite as Dr.Ralph said, yet she still turned. Which would bring into question how the parasite enters the system. The hazzies may know something based on the way they were dressed...Leliana's eyebrows furrowed as she thought more, but she would have to talk to Dr.Ralph in private to actually brainstorm about what she was thinking about. For now, she was going to focus on another issuse, dinner.

It was cold, snowing, so why not look throigh the various cans of soup that the orginal supply group had brought back? First off of course, Leliana would wash her hands, despite the fact she was wearing gloves she wanted to be extra safe that her hands were clean. Even if she was just going to be dumping the contents of a Campbell's can into a big pot. Anyway, she found the bags of food, the one with the most cans and started looking through for the best option, which would turn out to be five cans of homestyle chicken noodle soup. That was enough to feed ten people, and that was the exact amount of people they had there at the lodge, not to mention the limited amount of snack like foods they could at the moment, spare incase someone got a little hungry. Leliana found the can opener, and got to work, humming the tune of Loney Boy by The Black Eye Keys while she just open cans and made sure the soup didn't burn while it heated up. You know, as one did.

 

[TheTreForce]

​

​

"Stay out here." Warren stepped into the little mart and the bell on the door chimed. The snow on his boots immediately began to melt, leaving wet prints and causing his strides to squeak on the white tile under him. The man checked behind the counter out of curiosity, but there was no body. The place seemed empty so far so he made his way through an aisle towards the back of the store. Cans and boxes littered the floor, fallen from the shelves; the occasional patch of blood caught his eye, but no biters. An improvised tune came from his lips in the form of a whistle, casually swinging his head from side to side to check the shelves for anything of interest. His interest was peaked when he reached the back of the mart. The wall was full of glass doors that swung out, providing access to the cold beverages inside. Surprisingly, the mart still had working electricity. His paw gripped an ice cold beer and he cracked it open, downing it with no problem and grabbing five more to stuff in his bag.

The door shut itself as he released it and continued on down the back of the store, resuming his tune. He was interrupted by a rude corpse trying to join in the song, it was terribly off key though. The rotting carcass of somebody's overweight grandmother came staggering around the corner of one of the aisles towards him. He swung his bag onto his back and unsheathed a crowbar from his belt. The biter had a lovely polka-dot dress on that was stained with blood; her left arm hung from tendons and strands of muscle, and her legs could barely move her being forward without limping and almost collapsing with every step. "I think you left your electric shopping chair at the front, lady." The response he got was just another moan from her deep red lipstick covered mouth. His arm went back and he swung the crowbar across her head. The crack of it splattered blood onto one of the glass doors and the creature tripped over itself, falling into the wall. Warren stepped forward without hesitation and grabbed the back of her head by the hair. He jerked her fractured skull back and shoved it through the glass. The fractured glass sank into the monster's neck and it let out a gurgle as blood poured out inside and onto the soda cans. Warren's foot came up and back down on the bottom of it's neck with the sound of bones breaking and flesh being torn. The head severed with a single stomp and the body lay motionless. His footsteps echoed throughout the store once again and he picked up his tune where he left off.

Back at the front of the store, he stepped back out into the harsh chill to find Tre gone. "Dammit." Gunfire from down the street caught his attention and he started to jog over, being careful not to alert whoever was doing the shooting. By the time he started to get close, he heard what sounded now to be like screams of pain a few allies down. He ran over to find the two men that had caused the ruckus, and Tre with a bloody machete. "Thought I told you to wait outside of the store, kid." He took a couple deep breaths, "You are your father's son." He gave Tre a little smirk before turning to the street, "C'mon, it's fuckin' cold out here. Let's find some place to lay low so I can enjoy my beers." That's when a power walking skinny man across the street caught his attention. "Aye!" Warren called out to the man as he made his way across the street, turning back to ensure that Tre was behind him.

Brax Mynah

 

[Brax]

The boy's light hues turned to look up at Warren. He was almost an entire foot taller than the teen in addition to being at least one hundred pounds over his weight. As the adult mentioned the fact that he had told Tre to stay put outside of the store, the teen frowned. He turned and hopped forward a few feet before bending slightly to pick up his shoe. Then he slipped it off before placing his bare foot into the shoe. Warren hadn’t been seen by those men in suits and shot at. It was easy for him to say that he told Tre not to move without knowing the proper context. He walked back over to Warren’s side. Despite yelling, Warren still made the effort to track him down. Even if he was a bit late.

Tre had spent a large amount of time over the past seventy-two hours trying to figure out what kind of man Warren was. There were a few things that stood clear to the teen. First and foremost, he wasn't in jail for being a nice guy. Much like his father, Warren was caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do. He had a way with words, somehow making Tre feel as though he was on stable grounds at all times, even when Tre was down and out. Warren liked alcohol a lot, to the point where he was constantly attempting to either find beer or find a safe place to drink. It didn't seem as though there was a time that Warren didn't think about drinking - as was evident in him seeing that Tre had fought off two men before mentioning beer immediately afterwards.

When the man mentioned that Tre had reminded him of his father, the teen looked up to him with surprise. Then, this expression turned to one of happiness as he displayed a small smirk. Once Warren’s attention had been caught by the man walking across the street, the teen was forced to address the situation. Warren then called out to the stranger in an attempt to get his attention, but Tre was unsure if this was the right move. If they were too loud, it was possible Warren could attract more hazmat soldiers. Or, zombies - which weren’t any better. If Tre’s father was around, the man would undoubtedly have a plan. He wondered if Luca had somehow made it out of the city alive, though it was more than likely that the man had connections that superseded the events that had transpired in Aurora over the past few days.

Warren was right. Tre's father would have done the same with the two suited-up men. He had often turned to violence throughout the boy's childhood - and never bothered to hide his rage in the process. Regardless of Warren's downfalls, Tre figured there must have been a reason that his father took a liking to him.

“Who the fuck is this ninja?” Tre raised an eyebrow as his eyes tracked Marty.

Before he was able to finish his own sentence, Tre’s feet led him across the street with a light jog. He made it to the sidewalk that the man had been walking down. The teen stopped a few feet in front of the man in hopes to halt his forward progress. It was possible that this stranger had a warm place he was headed to or someway to help. Tre and Warren had been under the impression that those who were still alive after the previous two days had either made their way out of the town somehow. It was surprising to see another survivor walking the streets of Aurora. It would hurt his ego to ask, but Tre knew it was a must.

“Can you help us? We need to find somewhere to post up for the night.” The teen inquired, crossing his arms over his chest.

TheTreForce Mynah

 

[Maj]

​

Everything in Andy’s body tried to vibrate and move, like every molecule in her was trying to keep warm. She couldn’t hold still, it was like when you squirm when you were in pain, or how you flex your toes during a bad leg cramp. The result was climbing Luca like he was her own personal space heater. It wasn’t glamorous, and it was far from comfortable. In fact, if Luca ever spoke of this in other company she was likely to poison his coffee.

It didn’t help that they were both stripped of most of their clothing. The soaked garments were still drying near the makeshift fire. Cold, wet fabric was the last thing you wanted near your skin when you risked freezing to death. It just robbed you of all your internal body heat. The scene must have looked highly inappropriate, her half dressed body clinging to his, but the only thing she could focus on was sapping the poor guy of any body heat he had.

Finally, things felt almost comfortable. She tried not to focus on where she was, her body in his lap, face nestled in his neck, arms around him. It was a more intimate position than she normally offered her lovers. Cuddling wasn’t something Andy did, and yet here she was. It didn’t even matter, for a moment she felt her body relax, the cold becoming bearable under the stollen blanket. They say when you freeze to death, things start to numb out and you even start to feel warm before it takes you. It was possible that this was what was happening, Andy supposed. At least, it wasn’t miserable anymore, it could be worse.

Andy’s eyes widened and she pushed herself back from Luca to look into his eyes that seemed to be trying to avert her gaze. Their faces were so close they almost touched, she could feel his warmth breath on her skin. Her red hair was matted to her face by blood, she had dirt and tear tracks all over her pale freckled face. But none of that apparently mattered to Luca.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Andy hissed, but made no attempts to move. It was surprising how much she was willing to deal with to stay warm. “Don’t you think all that blood is better suited literally anywhere else?” The girl nestled back into his neck with a sigh. It wasn’t the first time she had elicited such a reaction , and it was likely not the last either. Not to mention she still needed him for warmth, he probably couldn’t help it.

“I didn’t realize this was the first time you’ve been this close to a girl,” Andy remarked, but the bite to her words were gone, and it was hard to take her seriously with the way her words vibrated from the shivers.

The girl shoved him so they laid down on the blood stained mattress she had drug out of one of the bedrooms. Everything in her body protested to moving, it would be easier to keep warm with the mattress keeping their backs warm. Unfortunately, she was still painfully aware of every shard of glass digging further into her shoulder as she adjusted. Her position barely changed, her limbs still clung to his form, seeking warmth. She laid next to him, her head under his chin and in his neck, her mane of red hair spilling over both of their forms.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.” Andy smirked into the side of his neck as she tried to get comfortable for a long and miserable night.


Brax

 

[Oslonaut]

S A R A H​

Freeman Medical Center

Early Thursday morning, October 18th, 2018

When man meets a force he can't destroy, he destroys himself instead. What a plague you are. Ryszard Kapuscinski

Upon hearing her cousin mention the nursing student back at the lodge, it wasn't too difficult for Sarah to piece together the conclusion Owen had come to. She didn't bother to acknowledge the fact, but she didn't bother to deny it either. Searching the medication she needed on Google was starting to stress her out. There were so many options, and none of them looked familiar to what she could piece together from her memory. She wished she hadn't lost her prescription note. And, while she appreciated the resource at the lodge, she wasn't convinced a nursing student knew what to prescribe her on or how much of dosage she needed. Not without the proper equipment required for a thorough analysis, anyway. Still, it was better than just guessing... right?

Scrambling for a notepad and a pen, she wrote down all the medications for her sickness that she could find: aripiprazole, asenapine, lurasidone, brexpiprazole, clozapine. Then, when she felt she'd found enough, the young woman quickly joined the looting fest with Owen. The noise he'd heard was lost on her as she scanned through each hallway with frenzied eyes, zipping open her bag and stuffing it with any meds she found for her literal scavenger hunt. Oddly enough, she couldn't help but read the names on each pill bottle and bag: Patricia Clyde, Eugene Prushka, Yolanda Orr. All people in Aurora that likely had the same problem as her, or at least similar. Most of them were probably dead.

As she read one of these names and thought about what made her so lucky to be standing, she heard it: the moans and growls of an unnatural horde headed their way. Fuck. By the time Owen called out to her, she had already zipped up her bag and exited the hallway, just in time to see him bolting the door shut with a metal bar. "Barricade the door?" She responded. "I think that should be enough to—"

THUMP. THUMP. BANG.​

The door and the very wall that surrounded it shook violently from the thing on the other side trying to knock it down. Whatever it was, it didn't sound like a pushover. In fact, its very presence prompted Sarah to instinctively reach for her gun and drop her bag. "A-Alright. There's a shelf right over there I think you can start off with. I'll close the shutters on these windows." She stated, hurrying over to the four separate counters where the pharmacists could take orders and dole out prescriptions. The one that worried her the most, however, was the one she had slid over. It was exposed, unlike the other three— which had thick bullet-proof glass barriers with a thin slot at the bottom for exchanges. Thankfully, from what she could see, it had a metal shutter just like the others. And most of the snappers appeared oblivious to it, following whatever was banging on their door.

Unfortunately, as she approached, the same thing that had seen Owen and was banging on the door suddenly sensed her presence somehow. As she crouched and cautiously made her way to the exposed countertop as to not draw attention, it slammed the side of its pasty white face against one of the bullet-proof barriers. Its jagged and crimson grin unsettled her immediately. The fingernails on its hands, more like claws at this point, tore across the barrier as the wild eye it had fixed on her shivered with hungry anticipation. Could it be... excited? Unable to look at it longer than she had to, she shifted her eyes to the exposed countertop she sought to close off. Then was horrified to realize that the monster's eye had shifted in that direction as well. Somehow... it knew.

With no time to explain or call Owen for help, Sarah burst into motion as she bounded off the grounded towards the countertop. The pale white snapper with the eerie grin did the same, peeling itself off the barrier it had its face pressed against and fighting against the very horde it had brought with it. This had suddenly become a deadly game of speed more than anything else. Seeing its progress through the periphery of her eye, as it passed by the other two barrier-protected windows, she tried not to scream as she realized how effortlessly it seemed to maneuver through the crowd of tightly packed snappers in the waiting room. It shoved them away as if they were rag dolls, heaving with something that sounded less like someone trying to catch a breath and more like a rabid cannibal in ecstasy.

She'd almost slipped on the linoleum floor but, through some miracle, Sarah had reached the exposed countertop moments before the pale one did. There was no time to waste as she fired bullets into the foreheads of two snappers who had caught on, trying to climb over into the room with her and Owen. They fell back as others shoved to take their place, Sarah taking the chance to leap onto her side of the counter and reach for the pull-chain. Her hand swiped at it, but missed. She whined with morbid desperation, wishing she wasn't so short. And, when she felt something grab her ankle, she almost lost her mind expecting to have her leg torn off. But she couldn't stop now. She had to try again.

Leaping once more, despite the hand tightening around her ankle, she managed to claw her index finger around the pull-chain's ring before slamming the shutter down. When the soles of her boots landed loudly on the linoleum floor, it was accompanied by several other sounds. The first was the metal shutter unraveling in a cacophony of noise as it slammed down, slicing the undead forearm apart from the hand that remained tight around Sarah's ankle. The other was the sound of the pale one finally reaching the countertop, angrily slamming itself against that same metal shutter— but to no avail. It had been locked and, despite the gross snapper hand on her ankle, Sarah was okay. For now.

Without wasting a moment, she would close and lock the shutters on the other windows before helping Owen barricade all of it. When they were done, she would ask him to help take the severed hand off of her ankle, afterwards taking the chance to ask: "What the fuck was that?"

Post-timeskip...​

They'd been in here for what felt like an eternity now. The counter-tops and the main door had all been barricaded with furniture and heavy equipment, and they were doing their job well... despite a few scares. The only other door they had found in the prescription room was sealed off with an electronic card reader much like the one that was keeping the pale one away as well. They had searched for a keycard, tried to use a metal trolley as a battering ram, and even attempted to use the computer to 'hack' it or whatever. But neither of them were exactly computer savvy. Sarah wanted to shoot the damn thing, but she wasn't sure if that would save them or seal their fate. She sat beside their would-be exit with her back against the wall, head buried in her arms as they remained perched across her knees. Beside her were was her bag and gun. And, as she peeked over her arm...

She saw it staring at her again.

The black mass with red eyes.​

Interaction: Maj

 

[The Mad Queen]

Jenna
​

​

The girl took down supply notes as she moved from the kitchen about the lodge. Colt had asked for the three of them to go over the list, but she figured Ralph was busy going over his findings and Leliana was moving around the house, cleaning it. If years of bloodied school uniforms were anything to go by, blood was a difficult stain to get out. She didn't envy her.
Of course, Jenna didn't think too much about that as her mind focused on the supplies. Anything to get Rogue's face out of her head as her eyes went from a notepad to shelves of food and small compartments full of medical supplies.

She wasn't going to say anything yet, in case things with the group didn't work out but she added her own supplies to the list. Those in her rucksack and the ones in her car. A small amount for sure, but every bandage, every stitch and every drop of antiseptic could be the difference between life and death. The only thing she left off the list was her meds.
Those were for her and her alone, and it wasn't like they'd do anyone in the group much good anyway.

Jenna made two lists in pen, one for food and another for medical supplies. Perhaps she could buy her place with the group with what she had or perhaps Luca would take it by force, there was no way of knowing till he got back.

"They're going to need to cut down on mac and cheese." Jenna muttered "Pancakes too. Yup, definitely the pancakes."
She moved upstairs next and completed her list, stepping around the room Rogue had been in.
"No." She muttered to herself, walking past it. Doris' body had been bad enough so it wasn't something she needed to see. Taking a deep breath she moved about the upstairs, making her way to a back room that had a closed door. With her head pointed at the notepad she pushed it open and slowly looked up.

There it was, wrapped up in several bedsheets. The girl tightly shut her eyes, and with one hand shut the door over tightly. She moved to the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror.
"It wasn't your fault." She whispered "She made you second guess yourself." She pointed at her reflection "But we know each other. We know what we can do. Can't afford to second guess ourself, especially not now. No internet and no dad, just you. And a German Shepard."
She looked to her left, seeing that Cammy had joined her in the bathroom. Her tail was wagging and her head was tilted to the side as she looked into Jenna's eyes.

Smiling, Jenna knelt down at the dog's side and stroked behind her ears.
"We stick together. No matter what, we're together in this mess. Shake?"

Cammy responded by raising her left paw. Jenna shook it then went back to scratching behind the dog's ears.
"Good girl." She kissed her on the forehead "Good girl."

Jenna and her dog made their way back downstairs, she wanted to go over the food supplies one more time. It was less out of the idea that she'd missed something and more about trying to keep herself busy. She'd double check, triple check and perhaps even check things over more than four times if it meant keeping Rouge's face out of her mind.

She started with own supplies, going through the rucksack. She didn't even notice Leliana making soup, for her mind was buried in the bag. The most important meds, at least to her were in a zipped compartment she kept hidden. Checking her supply of Estradiol , she started to lay the plastic bottles of pills out on the table and counted.
"Six weeks." She said, out loud "After that..."

Rogue's face came to mind again. Would Jenna end up like her? Like Doris? Would a side effect of withdrawal slow her down enough for an infected to kill her?
"No. This won't be what kills me. Be out of town by then, at an embassy or back home. Pills a plenty there."

She smiled, breathed a sigh of relief and then looked up, noticing Leliana for the first time. Her smile immediately faded, her eyes slightly winded.
This could be a problem.

Mentioned: FireMaiden
In the area: Rumble Fish Soma Schicksal Hyped_Taco King Vioogra BloodThunder27 Brax

 

[Hyped_Taco]

​

Michael knew he had just fucked up big time by making fun of somebody´s death, especially somebody the group seemed to have been with them way longer than he had been, so to try to redeem himself at least a little he accepted Colt´s order to send Marcus a toolbox ¨Aye aye M´Lady¨ Michael told her moments before picking the box up and starting to go to the room Marcus was in but there seemed to be a problem with this plan, he hadn´t checked all of the lodges before and he didn´t know who the fuck Marcus was, so he would need to check every room ¨… Goddammit¨ he muttered to himself before starting to check all the rooms.

​

Almost 10 Minutes had passed and Michael had not found the room yet, he was getting fatigated rather quickly due to his poor diet and lack of exercise. The neckbeard was getting ready to just return to Colt and tell her he had given up until he finally found it, a man on the second floor with a sniper-or was it a rifle? no time to think about that, his objective was to deliver the package. He threw the toolbox to the floor ¨So… Colt told me to give you this¨ after that he got out of the room and closed the door behind himself in a rather awkward way.

​

Before having completely walked down the stairs the man could hear the voice of Colt giving what seemed to be a speech to the rest of the group so he accelerated his pace so he could get there in time to hear it. ¨Well, this sure isn´t a motivational speech¨ Michael thought to himself moments after she finished speaking, why did she just told him to help where needed? did she not trust him enough for a simple task?!... ¨Fair enough I guess¨ he responded to her.

Before leaving the room a doctor started speaking, or well he might as well be since he understood jackshit of what he said other than the word Brain. Even though Michael didn´t fully understand the explanation Fisher had just given them he paid attention, and when he suggested escaping to Canada or Mexico Michael just couldn´t keep his mouth shut ¨Hey so I don´t want to ruin your plan or anything but… Are you out of your mind? how are we ever gonna get there if the fucking army is looking for us as you said, and even if we get to any of these nations then couldn´t the government just like categorize us as terrorists and then us locked up anyway?!¨ Michael panicked a bit after the man told him the government was hunting them down, and couldn´t keep these questions of the plan to himself.

The neckbeard just had to go somewhere else to get his stress out, and what a better place to do just that than in the kitchen. He could smell the soup that Leliana was preparing so the fat man grabbed a spoon and bowl from the counter, served himself soup and started gulping it down… ¨Finally some good fucking food¨ the beast told himself while seizing his hunger.

​

Mentioned: FireMaiden Leliana
Interacted: Rumble Fish Colt Soma Schicksal Marcus The Mad Queen Ralph

 

[FireMaiden]

This is a collab between FireMaiden and The Mad Queen

&
Jenna​

Leliana had spaced out again. Staring off into space as she twirled her thumbs, the girl maybe looked as if she was watching for something through the window above the sink. It would take a minute, and the sound of someone sitting down at the dining room table for her to be drawn out of it, cuaisng her to gently shake her head and stir the soup. It was almost ready, so she turned to the cupboard she knew held the bowls, her eyes falling on Jenna at the table. She was counting out pills, which caused Leliana's brows to furrow, as she sat two bowls down on the counter infront of her, her face soften ed seconds before Jenna seemed to notice her. "So...you have six weeks of what?" Her voice was quiet, loud enough for Jenna to hear her, but not loud enoigh for anyone else to hear incase it was something sensitive. Of course, Jenna might not want to tell her, they did have a small argument earlier, but Leliana was a nurse. Overall, helping people is what she did.

Of course she'd heard her. Jenna wasn't exactly being quiet, and she had been in a different world for a few minutes. It was as if the rest of the lodge was faded away, leaving her with nothing but the supply list and her own meds. Still, it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong. She thought about it for a few seconds, sitting in silence and letting out a quiet sigh. The nurse could assume that Jenna was some kind of addict, or perhaps worse. "Estradiol." Jenna admitted with a slight smile. There was no shame, nor embarrassment in her tone or her face. It wasn't something the girl was ashamed of. "I brought other meds, but these wouldn't do anyone else in the group much good."

When Jenna told her what it was, Leliana nodded, turning away to stir the soup once more so the bottom wouldn't burn, before she turned and took a spot standing across from Jenna. Leliana just didn't want to sit down, but getting closer would allow her to be quieter. "Unless there was an old lady with menopausal issuses, it's the same brand they use. Which means if you're lucky, while there aren't any speciality clinics here in Aurora, there could be more somewhere in town. Hopefully somewhere easy to get to," Leliana mentioned. So, Jenna was trans? Cause she was to young for menopause, and younger women with hormonal issuses would be given birth control. In a lot of cases at least. "Any found out in the city though would probably be a different dosage, which could cause problems." Once again, her brows furrowed slightly as she thought more about it, she obviously didn't like this situation of not having access to most of the medical world. "Hell of a time for the world to end."

She gave the nurse a light smile in response, she was at least keeping it subtle. Sure, Jenna wasn't ashamed, in fact one could say she was proud of it but she knew all too well that not everyone would react in a good way. As she started to place the bottles of meds back in her rucksack, she rested her head on top of her right hand.
She was a medical professional, so there was little doubt in the girl's mind that Leliana had figured things out. Meds like that only got prescribed to two kinds of people, and the last time Jenna checked she wasn't going through menopause. Plus, it wasn't like she kept it hidden. She joked about it on Twitch, and some of her streams were about giving advice and makeup tips that were catered to girls like her. "I'm aware. That's why I want to be out of here before then. That, and I need to expose the Fascists who shot up the school, trapped us all here and are trying to cull the population."

Leliana shifted, glancing around, before looking back to Jenna. "The city is being blocked off like Raccon City. Or, maybe Harran? I can maybe see why they would. If at all possible containing the parasite what everyone shoukd be doing, but..." she trailed off breifly, "I don't have a way to phrase what im trhing to say without it sounding like imncool with the murder of innocents. I'm not, and exposining them is certianly the way to go, but leaving Aurora may not be an option for a while. There are the sewers, but not only are they a maze, but they will probably be keeping an eye on the exits." Leliana had actully done a little thinking on her own, mainly while she was upstairs cleaning before Marcus went to go repair the window, she had actually done a lot of thinking, but the important stuff was what they were talking about now. "If we want to escape, we'd probably have to wait until we have more supplies to increase our chances of holding our own in a fight, i think they work for the govrnment, they'd be well supplied."

Jenna had made a few trips to Harran during her streaming days. For the sake of the group, she just hoped that the dead didn't mutate. The virus was completely new to everyone, even the CDC doctor but given how quickly the hazmat troopers had shown up someone in some hidden government department had to know something. They had an army.
That was who she needed to bring down.

"Yeah, Michael said he made his way here through the sewer but it was crawling with..." She stopped herself, almost using the z-word once again "Those things. It's a deathtrap down there." Maybe if they could find a way to flush the infected out of the sewer, there was a slim chance the hazmat troopers would miss at least one exit. "Hopefully it won't take six weeks." Jenna chuckled. She was laughing on the surface, but inside she was still frightened of the side effects once she ran out. It would be a while before they kicked in, still but how long would it take her to get more once she got out? Sighing, she started out of the window. "Hopefully nobody else dies before then."

"The sewers are filthy too, someone would get sick. Luca has a large gash in his abdomend that i had to give him 22 stitches for, Ivan's knee will take about 2 months before he can even start putting weight on it again, Andy messed up her ankle though honestly it's probably fine as long as she didnt strain it much, and Shinoa is going to give birth very soon, so there would be an infant. And babies make a lot of noise, being down there and being discovered would be a death trap," Leliana continued. "I doubt we could get any in the sewers out unless we killed them, and we don't have the supplies to do that safely. We're gonna be stuck here for a while, so I'll put Estradiol on the list of high priority items anyone who goes out on supply runs needs to look for, just to make sure you have enough." Chances are, Jenna's pills would be in the hospital pharmacy, which wasnt safe right now. Well, the entire town wasn't safe right now. Leliana sighed softly, "Yeah...we have to make sure that doesn't happen. We got lucky, Ivan grabbed a bunch of medical supplies before we escaped the middle school."

The group had taken a beating long before Jenna had even arrived. She wondered if any of them had actually been killed as well, but decided not to ask in case she brought up painful memories. She'd only heard in passing what had happened at the school, it was a massacre. It did raise some questions though, like why would the hazmats have medical supplies just lying around if the school was set up as an execution chamber? Maybe the group had been exploring before the shooting happened and just stumbled upon it on their way out, or maybe they'd stolen it as they fought their way out.

Two months was too long, not only would her meds run out but she wound't get back in time for Christmas. It seemed silly, but she had never missed a Christmas with her dad. Putting her meds on the priority list did mean quite a lot, but Jenna knew things wouldn't be that simple. It wasn't like she could just chugg down HRT meds and hope for the best. She kept staring out of the window. "The idea wasn't to take the whole group at once. I only knew about Ivan's leg and Shinoa's pregnancy so there was no way they'd make it. Not that they'd be left behind. God no. We'd only be leaving to expose the government. Just a small number of us. Me, Ralph and maybe one or two people from the school who saw everything."

"After that, maybe they'd stop murdering citizens and everyone else could make it out."
It was a long shot, but the only alternative seemed to be hanging tight and waiting to die.

She gently shook her head, "I don't think it's that simple. What if this isn't just in Aurora? They've done their best to create a media black out yeah? Cutting phone lines, power, the internet, but something surely got out. Whether it was something helpful or not...I'm not sure, I just have a feeling this isnt as well contained as they may think." While Jenna was someone she could brainstorm with, Ralph was the one she wanted to share most of her ideas with first because he could possible gauge their possibility. Of course, an unknown parasite had unknown possibilities, nobody truly knew what it was capable of. "It terrifies me, but they wouldn't be here if someone on the outside didn't know about it. And, this all started at the hospital, which means it probably came from an outside source, not here in Aurora. Of course we're sitting on a time bomb, slowly drowning, whatever terminalology you want to." The murdering innocents point Jenna brought up though, it dissapointed Leliana. "They won't stop. Most likely, they think they're stopping the parasite from spreadinv by killing everyone who could possibly be affected it. Even if they're exposed, they won't be ordered to stop, and anyone who escapes will be targeted just because we were here in Aurora." She paused again, turning to walk back around the counter grabbing one of the bowls so she could spoon some soup into it. After getting a spoon, she took the bowl to Jenna. "Here. You cant get any more soup, but if you're still hungry, we have enough cushion right now with the food, you can get a small snack."

"All the more reason to get out while we can. If the government is covering this up then we need to warn people, and I can't do anything if I'm cut off from the outside world."
Michael was alive due to her early warning, so how many lives could she save if she actually knew what was going on? Jenna gave a heavy shrug "I feel so crappy just sitting here, waiting around." Waiting to die. The group had it well held together, for sure but it wouldn't last forever. If everyone turned into one of the infected upon death all it would take was one accidental death to bring down the whole group. A botched medical treatment, an accident while training or even one of the group taking their own lives, unable to cope with the hell they found themselves in. She could try to keep people's spirits up, but that would only do so much and if anything there was probably a higher chance that she'd just annoy people.

One idea came to mind: Shinoa. Surely her pregnancy, the idea that life could continue after so much bad had happened would give people hope, right? Cammy could help too, dogs released a ton of chemicals that helped improve mental well being. Between angry and possibly PTSD stricken army veterans, a frightened child and every other person being separated from their loved ones they would need everything they could get. Jenna happily took the bowl in hand, tucking in with a spoon. She wasn't one to turn down soup, and she realised she hadn't eaten since the morning anyway. "Thanks. I'll pass on the other food for now though. Shiona is eating for two, and Milly needs to keep her strength up."

"Yeah, they sure do." Jenna's statement came at a perfect time too, just as Micheal came in and helped himself to some soup. "Which is why you are only getting one bowl, you got that?" Her voice was stern, so her message was clear as she grabbed another bowl from the cupboard and two more spoon for Shinoa and Milly. She felt good that her and Jenna were on a little better terms now, even if it was just slightly, she would have hated it if that one arguemtn runied everything. It was a relief, really. Taking the two bowls, she walked into the living room, giving one to Milly and Shinoa, "Dinner time, eat up. Tell me if you two are still hungry later okay?" God she sounded like her mother. But hey, if thats what kept everyone alive so be it. Looking up and around, she looked at everyone in the living room. "Everyone gets one bowl of soup, make sure that there's some for Marcus left." And with that, she turned to go and serve herself some dinner.

Hyped_Taco Rumble Fish BloodThunder27 Soma Schicksal King Vioogra Maj Brax ​

 

[BloodThunder27]

Agent Brian Rousseau
Age: 36
Location: Lodge Interactions: Colt Rumble Fish
Mentioned: Milly, Shinoa

A Hopefully Silent NightBrian snapped out of his train of thought when Colt asked everyone to come into the living room. This time though, she was much more mellow and calm. At least to him. The Zombie attack seemed to be getting to everyone. Hell, it even got to the Agent himself. She did seem more of a leader now then she was earlier in the day. Soon, Colt began handing out tasks to everyone in the group. Brian was no exception. When she had asked him to go check the Armory. After Colt was finished, Brian went ahead towards the Armory, where all the weapons were kept. They had consumed a reasonable amount of ammunition in the attack. If they weren't careful, they were going to run out within the next two attacks. Being reduced to his Wrist Blade was a scary thought, mainly because it'd increase his chances of being bitten...and becoming one of them. However, if he was bitten, he'd ask Colt to euthanize him.

While he skimmed through the Ammunition, he became a little concerned. Three full boxes of Handgun Ammunition; Two 9 Millimeter Boxes, one full box of forty-five. If they were good with their shots, the handgun ammunition should last them at least two or three more attacks. Another good way to conserve ammunition was to set up more defenses, like fences, booby traps and the sort. As he continued to skim through, he took note that there were no explosives, improvised or otherwise. It was probably best that way, since explosions make too much noise and only attract more infected. Or worse. Up next was the Rifle Ammo. Two Full Boxes of 5.56...and one full box of 7.62. Well, they definitely had to be careful with their Rifle Ammunition, which meant no full-auto. There was no Shotgun ammunition as far as he could tell. But no one here really used Shotguns anyway, though they should probably start. Shotguns were very effective against the undead. At least in Movies and Videogames. Though in real life, they were good for close-range and home defense. And they were technically defending their home...so...

After he had finished, he left the Armory to let Colt know about their ammunition shortage. "So our Ammo Reserves don't look good. The only good news, each box of ammo that I found is unopened. The bad news...well...we got two boxes of Nine-Millimeters, one box of forty-five. Then for the Rifles, we got Two-Boxes of 5.56 NATOs, and one box of 7.62 Millimeters...So...I hope we don't get attacked again anytime soon." He grimaced.

As dinner time came, Brian grabbed a small bowl of soup and decided to eat light. Chances were he wasn't gonna be sleeping tonight. Not to mention they had a pregnant woman and a child with them, so they needed the food more then anyone.

Shinoa Bradford
Age: 17
Location: Lodge Interactions: Milly Rumble Fish , Lelianna FireMaiden
Mentioned: N/A

Pregnancy Progression: 39 Weeks, 2 Days

Countdown to Childbirth

A Peaceful Night
The young mother continued to relax with Milly. When asked if she could play in the snow, Shinoa only smiled a little. "Maybe when the weather calms down and...there are no dead monsters in the yard." She responded. Once the fireplace was lit, Shinoa just straightened out her robe and cradled her swollen belly. She frowned when the baby started kicking again. Such an active little angel. With the hospital out of commission, and the idea of a home birth being a definite, she was more worried then ever.

For dinner, she ate quietly, with her portion being slightly bigger. Still, conserving food and pregnancy were never a really good mix. She needed to nourish the baby, but they had to conserve food as well. It also didn't help that Shinoa was consistently hungry. When Lelianna said that she and Milly could get more food later, Shinoa nodded.

Although she wanted to do the dishes, Shinoa decided to either let someone else take care of it, or she'll deal with it in the morning after breakfast. She was feeling tired and reasonably lightheaded. And with the room she was staying in out of commission, she had to find a new room to sleep. Her only worry was sleeping on the floor due to the discomfort it will bring her. Before going back to the living room, she approached Lelianna. "Hey, I know you're busy and all but...when you have some free time, can I get a massage before bed?" She asked while cradling her belly. Her legs and her back were aching quite a bit, but there hasn't been any contractions within the last six hours. "I'll wait for you in the Living Room." She said before waddling back towards the Living Room.

As soon as she sat down, she felt a rather strong contraction. A look of discomfort met her face as she whined a little. Afterwards, she just took a deep breath and held her belly, closed her eyes and leaned back.