The Running Dead

[Captain]

~A Zombie Apocalypse RP with a few twists between

@DistortedLodestar and @Captain ~

“This is the way the world ends:


Not with a bang, but a whimper.”


― T.S. Eliot

​

Shots and snarls suddenly filled the damp autumn morning, and Sawyer took it as his cue to leave. He burst out of the shop with in one hand a bag with supplies and in the other his hunting knife. Quickly scouting his surroundings, he saw a herd of zombies heading his way in pursuit of the group of survivors Sawyer had seen earlier. Immediately he decided he wasn't going to help, and he swiftly ran in the other way.


Bypassing the long string of cars on the road, Sawyer scanned the streets he was passing and saw more zombies approaching; clearly attracted by all the ruckus those survivors were making, the fools. They signed their own death certificates by using guns ons such a large herd, in the middle of a city of all places. It was very easy to get yourself lured into a corner - people tended to forget that in their panick.


Keep focused, he told himself with his teeth clenched. Otherwise you will join them as fresh meat. But where to go? Where was the edge of this city? Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to enter this town after all. But food was scarce and winter was approaching, and soon the snow would come. How would he get into stores then?


Thanks to his extensive soccer training in another life, he had pretty good stamina. But faster than he would've liked Sawyer felt pain flare up in his side and he tasted blood in his dry throat. When he risked a look back he saw that the zombies had chosen the easier prey over him and he was alone again. Or at least, so it appeared.


Looking around him, he saw three ways he could go. The signs above him gave no clue to an exit. Damnit, he should've never come here after all.

 

[DistortedLodestar]

How many groups has he been through within the last few weeks? Nova counted about four now. The number sounds low, but there weren't many survivors in that region to begin with. The actual total of how many times he's been left behind or kicked out by his fellow teammates since the apocalypse started was a number larger and more extensive than he could even remember at the moment. Why am I thinking about this right now? I need to find shelter, and fast! he scolded himself. After just being told to leave his former group due to the fact that they accused him of leading them to a dead end, even though he hadn't even said a word the whole journey since they always blamed him when things went wrong if he did speak, he was left to fend for himself.


He heard gunshots resonate through the air not far from behind him, and that's when he thought running as fast as he could from the noise was his best option. Even he knew that making loud noises at any given time meant certain death. The farther he got, the closer he was to what looked like a person up ahead of him, causing him to slow down and watch the figure cautiously. After all, it could be one of the undead.


Picking up a nearby stick, he neared the organism. Getting nearer, he noticed that there was no obvious stench or signs of decomposing flesh. Should he call out to them? What if it is a zombie, though? Then I'd be dead for sure... But they don't look dead or anything... he argued with himself, lowering the stick and loosing his concentration momentarily. It was times like these that got him into sticky situations and made him so susceptible to being seen as an inconvenience.


Snapping back to reality, Nova saw the person still standing there and took a quick glance at his surroundings. He heard screams come from where he had last saw his ex-team, and knew that they were goners. He felt bad, but was glad that they blamed everything on him or he'd be back there with them, dying right now. Dumb luck seemed to be his only true ally.

 

[Captain]

((Sorry for the late reply!))


There was no time for him to clearly think about this. His panic clawed at his throat and he needed to get out of here fast. If he weren't, the dead would be. And then he would walk alongside them. Even though he lost everyone he had ever known when the Rise began, he wasn't ready to die yet. And the thought of becoming one of the beings that killed the world was unbearable. He would probably sooner shoot himself through the head than to let that happen, even though he would have to find some bullets first. His pistol was old and rusty and had ran out of ammo a long time ago. He wasn't a very good shot anyway and bullets were scarce these days. Hostile survival groups had snagged them away from about every shop in the cities. Finding them somewhere was a bit like finding gold or oil on your property.


Sawyer snapped his head to the right when he heard a sound and got shocked out of his feverish thoughts when he met the eyes of someone else. A boy. Alive, not a zombie. That could be good, but most likely bad. Time to get out. But not before giving a warning. Or maybe multiple, considering that the other survivor didn't look like he had a group with him.


Sawyer ran in the boy's direction after glancing behind himself a last time. "Hey! Run man, zombies are roaming around here! Get out and-" He began as he ran past the kid and yelled over his shoulder: "-don't follow me!"


He recognized this street. This would bring him back to the woods and back to his temporary set up camp in a big tree. Trouble had to be over for him now. He had had his portion of excitement now.

 

[DistortedLodestar]

((No problem~ Don't worry about it!))


It all happened so fast, too fast for Nova to deal with. Seeing the person move so quickly put him in a head spin. As he tried to process what was happening, all he could understand was '-follow me!'. Shrugging his shoulders exasperatedly, he pivoted on one foot and ran after the older man. He hoped that this guy knew what he was doing, because Nova surely didn't, and he predicted he wouldn't for a long time to come. Turning the corner, he noticed the man pick up speed and did his best to match the velocity. Nova connected the acceleration of speed to the possibility that the male before him recognized where they were at and it boosted his confidence in where to go, causing he sped up. Nova hoped this was the reason, at least.


Now that he thought about it, maybe it was 'don't follow me!' that was yelled at him... Oh well, he'd find that out sooner or later.


The farther the pair ran, the closer they got to the woods. Upon this realization, Nova grinned. There were a large number of trees that he could take refuge in; not to mention that these trees were much larger than the ones he had been sleeping in lately, meaning much more wiggle room and stability than those smaller and flimsier trees he had gotten acquainted with.


As he continued to run, Nova did a quick pat-down to check what all he had left in his artillery. His backpack was filled with various items such as food, water, blankets, and ammo which he had already looked over before, so he didn't need to worry about checking that. Feeling around in his pockets, he was relieved to find that both of his guns were in their rightful places and his knife had yet to be lost. Now that he thought about it, he had been able to keep these weapons in his possession longer than any others in the last few years. He had picked up some kind of curse that caused him to be robbed regularly.

 

[Captain]

The adrenaline surged through his body, and Sawyer had renewed energy. Enough to sprint out of here and catch his breath once he was in the woods. But then he heard fastly approaching footsteps behind him through the blood pounding in his ears, and he panicked for a minute. Was it a Runner, or maybe that kid from before? Looking behind was not an option, as he would lose his speed and balance. If it was the first option, it would've mean his death. Though the other possibility could also easily kill him, now he thought about it.


The person - or thing - was still behind him. The trees doomed up in the distance and they got bigger and bigger the closer Sawyer came to them. Finally, he had reached the safety of the trees and risked stopping and turning around. His hands shook slightly as he pulled out both his knife and his empty gun. Runner or survivor, he could handle them both.


It was the kid. Sawyer clenched his teeth and immediately lifted his gun and pointed it at the boy's head.


"I- I warned you, man." He said through gasping breaths and was almost doubling over in exhaustion. "Don't. Follow. Me."