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Post by spiritandsand on Feb 10, 2013 4:22:25 GMT -5
Aira couldn't help but shake her head hopelessly at Henry's silly plans of a four-man colony, she had a smile on never the less so it was not like she found him completely rediculous.. Just a little bit maybe. That was good.
It did make her a little more safe that Pru revealed that she actually knew where they were going, but she only managed to point in the right direction a few times before she fell into a drowsy state, and then she was sleeping again.
Aira took her example and leaned against the seatbelt trying to relax as much as possible in order to save energy. Also she made her brain relax by simply just focusing on what she saw out of the window, really go into details with them instead of imagining all sorts of events they might bump into, good or bad, there were simply too many possibilities for her head to contain.
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Post by vladimir on Feb 10, 2013 9:02:11 GMT -5
Reinhardt, newly labeled the 'Master of Coin', found himself wanting to contest this for some amount of time on the basis that they had no money, but then he managed to catch on through the lens of absolute seriousness through which he viewed most of the world and realized that Henry was joking. Drawing his lips taut in an expression of embarrassment that nobody would ever be able to actually see, he held his tongue and looked down awkwardly at the polyester carpeting below his feet.
At some point in time he'd dozed off, this he knew only because he snapped into wakefulness suddenly- though motionless, the twitch was purely mental-- as Pru drooped over onto his shoulder. That made him feel a little less nervous, he had to admit; in some respects he considered the girl a little sister and treated her as such. She couldn't have been that much older than Elizabeth (was she alive?) and she had the same willfulness hidden in her (was willfulness enough to survive?) and the brotherly side of him accepted her just as readily regardless of whether they were blood-related or not. Prudence was a good distraction from the anxiety of being among all these normal, clean, healthy individuals, because Prudence struck in him a unique sort of bravery.
Soon enough, Reinhardt found that he was comfortable enough to slide back into the haze of light, half-conscious rest, dozing with his head tilted at an awkward angle and leaned against the window with his unofficially adopted sibling flopped onto one shoulder where, in what must have been an amusing fashion to observe, his baggy coat began to consume her head and contacting shoulder steadily over time.
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Post by vampirechicken on Feb 10, 2013 9:05:49 GMT -5
The rain slowed and by about eleven o' clock, the clouds began to clear up ahead, the blinding morning sun shone right into the windshield as Henry drove east down the road. It had started to warm up enough that he could open the windows, trying to clear the lingering scent of rotting flesh from the car. He had been talking about pointless subjects for nearing three hours straight, mainly to avoid the uncomfortable silence that seemed to fill the vehicle whenever he stopped. At one stage he found himself discussing how Aira could live a normal life if she became a werewolf, in reference to her wolf related injuries the day before.
Occasionally he would call out to Pru to ask her how far they had to drive until the correct exit, but eventually the conversation died out completely and they rolled on in silence, only the sound of the engine remained.
Pru had dropped her head onto Reys shoulder a while ago, Henry could see them both sleeping in his rear view mirror as he pulled up into a derelict gas station. He had promised the others they would break for lunch when the rain stopped and it didn't hurt to look for more fuel at the same time. The car jerked to a halt by the gas pumps and they sat there for a few minutes just waiting with the engine still running and the doors locked. Henry was just studying at the door to the building like he was waiting for something.
Suddenly there was a gargled screech from the left rear door and a disfigured woman crawled up, pressing her face against the window and clawing at the glass with knarled fingernails. This had taken everyone by surprise, Henry had been watching the building carefully, expecting any infected to emerge from there but not to crawl from the grass like stalking predators. He put his foot on the accelerator and they were out of there in a second, leaving the creature spread on the ground moaning behind them. Her last scream almost sounded like a cry for help as Henry pulled the car back onto the highway.
“Looks like we're eating on the move today kids.” Henry said casually, putting on a burst of speed as another infected stumbled out onto the road, trying to block them before they had a chance to leave. Henry knocked him down, drove the car right over his skull with a splatter that was both satisfying and disturbing. “Hey you, Rey wasn't it? What have you got in the way of lunch in that bag o' yours.” he continued calm as ever.
By the side of the road, only a few hundred metres ahead, a group of 5 or so infected seemed to be gathered around the carcass of something large and tearing it apart. A cow perhaps? Or a horse... either way the decision to keep driving was made.
This gas station was too busy today.
The correct exit was up ahead, it was time to turn right and head on south.
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Post by alexharvey on Feb 11, 2013 6:20:22 GMT -5
Pru blinked sleepily when the car halted, rubbing her eyes and struggling to get up from reys shoulder. The next thing she saw was the infected woman thing gargling against the window and she shrieked in shock, jumping backwards and almost into Rey's lap.
Luckily Henry was coolheaded and sane enough to keep driving, despite that one not being the sole thing that encountered them. She pulled her knees up pressing her hands to her ears and figured that she should have buckled up, two days without her parents and she forgot everything. She would buckle later when they were out of the worst.
She couldn't really feel any joy at the perspective of eating now either, the shock still deep in her bones.
She shook her head if she was presented anything to eat, hands slowly sinking from her ears and looking out the window to check the route.
"I don't feel like eating thanks, can I have the map, please."
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Post by spiritandsand on Feb 11, 2013 13:23:37 GMT -5
Aira screamed along with Pru when the infected woman 'knocked' on their window, she pressed herself against the front door as to get as far away from her as possible, but luckily Henry was fast, and the car even faster, so they managed to escape...
Right until another scaled figure blocked the way, got knocked out and driven over. Despite the risk Aira rapidly rolled down her window and let her head hang out from it. The horrid sound of cracking bones and splattered blood and flesh combined with the car's constant rumbling almost made her spill yesterday's dinner, but it was not enough to actually make it happen.
She returned to her seat sighing with a hand covering her eyes - right now she could not welcome Henry's attempt to lighten the mood, and neither did she feel hungry, but knew that she had to eat. Also she sent the driver a nervous smile to announce that she was okay.
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Post by vladimir on Feb 11, 2013 18:53:13 GMT -5
Rey was woken suddenly by Pru jerking against him, one of her small hands raking surprisingly sharp nails (he knew because he could feel them through all the layers of coat) down his upper arm. At first he looked down at her, but as soon as he did he realized she was staring at something across the car from them. Following her gaze, Reinhardt looked up just in time to see the infected scrape chipped, yellowed teeth (a familiar sight as he knew his own were in a similar state, the mad had little regard for dental care) over the glass of the window. He acted without thinking for a moment, pressing himself back against the seat and moving one arm to pull Pru away from the gnashing incisors and bloodshot eyes, the smears of black and yellow on the window where the infected's open sores made contact with the pane. His other hand drew from one pocket a metal fork, one prong of which had been been bent, which he wielded like a sword out of reflex. It was a pathetic defense but at least he didn't need to put it to use, and as soon as Henry slammed on the pedal he realized that he had, for a moment, considered cutlery an appropriate means of fending off the infected. Great. He had the survival instincts of a potato.
The rest of the car ride was a bit awkward, Reinhardt keeping his hands folded on top of one another on one knee while he tried to avoid looking outside (it was nearly as hard to look an infected in the face as it was to look in a mirror, both acts were to the same effect of unpleasant self-alienation) and was quite happy to respond to Henry, not sensing due to his own combined naivety and desperate need for distraction that the man was not asking out of necessity but out of an effort to brighten the overall mood int he car.
"Yessir, ah--" he paused even as he spoke. What did he have in the bag? "Ah have some canned beans, some dried vegetables ah think-- no meat at all, m'fraid," he didn't mention that was because he'd thrown it all out, even the stuff that'd been packed with enough preservatives to render a potential diner's stomach impervious to the effects of time and biological decay long after the rest of the body rotted away. He left out the things that needed boiling, too, because he didn't think it'd help for him to mention warm food.
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Post by vampirechicken on Feb 11, 2013 19:25:56 GMT -5
Henry used the window override on his side of the door to shut Airas window and lock it remotely so she couldn't open it again. He also shot her a look of annoyance but the act of locking the window was probably enough to make his point anyway.
He would have expected her to be more careful with their lives after he almost died by the reckless grenade toss. Now he didn't know what to think, it was beginning to dawn on him that all three of these people only survived to this point on pure luck and circumstances. They were essentially all children.
As the car rolled down the road and the creatures disappeared behind them, Henry rolled his eyes and relaxed back in his seat. The girls were panicked now apparently.
“Anyone would think you'd never seen the beasts before.” he said callously, addressing Pru and Aira. Surely such things were commonplace wherever they had come from too. He was not shaken like the others, just hungry. If he let zombies put him off his lunch then he would have starved a long time ago. “Whatever, just calm down girls alright. We'll do lunch later Rey, don't worry about it.”
The click of Prus seatbelt alerted him to the fact she hadn't been wearing it and he sighed audibly but didn't say anything, he just passed her the map like she'd asked.
The area ahead of them began to change into a scene of ruined suburbia, houses ripped in half by trees and burned out cars buried in tall grass.
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Post by alexharvey on Feb 11, 2013 19:49:21 GMT -5
Pru took the map as soon as soon as she had wriggled from Rey, buckled herself and glanced a weird look at her friends ... 'weapon'.
She checked their position after glancing over the signs on the side of the street.
"I'm going to assume that these weren't misplaced by looters or something", she mumbled more to herself. At least she could tell the direction was correct and she remembered the way by the looks of the surroundings. Much had changed, but her fixed memory points were still vaguely recognizable.
'it's okay, right hand is the correct direction, keep going."
For as long as their fuel would last, that was.
She leaned back again. Seeing these deformed things from afar, people shooting them from a safe distance that was one thing. Them slobbering against the only, see-through, probably only one inch thick protection between them with their torn faces and dead eyes.
Nope. That was nothing she ever wanted to see this close again.
Once more she was more than glad Henry was keeping a cool head and seemed inclined to protect her.
She threw only one minor glance at Rey, wondering shortly if he looked like that woman under those bandaids.
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Post by spiritandsand on Feb 12, 2013 6:48:49 GMT -5
Aira shrinked when it dawned on her why Henry had closed her window so fast, she sent him a sorry, but also annoyed glance.
"Never seen them that close", she tried to safe her dignity and crossed her arms, but then loosened them again and rested her elbow on the cardoor, but that was too an awkward pose, so she dropped it down again.
She didn't liked that Henry treated her like a child, but that was how she'd been acting lately. How old was she again? Somewhere in the twenties, that was all she could remember. How old could the others possibly be? It was impossible to figure out Rey, Pru was not a day over 14, that was for sure, but she could not determine if it was stress or age that made Henry look so old... Or if she really fancied him, or if it was just because she had been alone for so long.
She agreed with herself that she would try to be more mature and not let the looters or scalefaces seize her like that again. Pretend it is large rats. Just kill them.
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Post by vladimir on Feb 12, 2013 8:40:21 GMT -5
Suddenly subdued, Rey nodded once and set his bag down gently before settling back with an awkward squint-- his emotional communication was restricted almost entirely to his eyes, as was the case with all his expressions since he'd first taken to binding his face up. Watching the car floor, he tuned out the superfluous information traveling back and forth between the conversation in the car, figuring that his own inclination to silence was well suited to this situation-- after all, the last thing Henry probably needed was to add another voice into the mix, especially considering how often Northerners and Westerners found prolonged exposure to a Southern drawl annoying beyond all other things. He made a mental note to try and figure out where they were whenever they stopped, for now he was unable to do so due to his inability to read either the map or the passing exit signs.
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Post by vampirechicken on Feb 13, 2013 6:07:07 GMT -5
Driving through the suburbs was easier than expected. A few infected roamed the streets but they seemed placid compared to the gas station monsters. They didn't follow the car or even look up as the survivors passed. There was less to offer here in loot, mostly a residential district, but this meant that there was no evidence of looters either.
Henry drove the car into the driveway that his young navigator specified, it was a large propery with a high fence all around the outside and a moderately sized building. Two zombies seemed to have wandered into the yard and were crouched near the gate staring at the car as it rolled in. One of them stood up, it was unrecognisable as a man or woman but it had been wearing jeans once... the other one was small and built like an older female child, perhaps a little older than pru. Henry didn't know if infected continued to age normally.
“I'll take out these ones...” Henry said, he realised that he was NOT leading a squad of zombie killers and decided that they might well throw up rather than help. He jumped out of the car, slamming the door and spinning round to open the boot. In an few seconds, screeching and gurgling came from behind the car.
Henry managed to pull his weapon out in time to slam it over the creatures head, leaving it dazed enough that he had time to bring an elbow down into the back of it's neck. The blow sent the zombie faceplanting into the car boot where Henry brutally pulled down the door, he did this twice more until the thing was lifeless from a crushed spine.
He tackled the second creature to the lawn, Then stomped her in the face until she fell limp too.
He stood there for a few moments, looking around for anymore danger, then gave the others a thumbs up with a sort of unsettlingly proud grin.
Prus friends house was empty, deserted completely as they scouted the perimeter for any sign of life or death. He stood in the living room contemplating the table while the others searched the house.
"Where the hell are your friends Pru?" he called out, knowing that she wouldn't be able to tell him. There was no sign of a struggle here, the house was dusty but pristine.
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Post by alexharvey on Feb 13, 2013 7:26:12 GMT -5
Pru wanted to shout something when Henry recklessly jumped out of the car, but as soon as he started bashing the monsters heads in she curled up on her seat, her hands pressed to her ears, squeezing her eyes shut, which of course did not help with the tremors shaking the whole car from Henrys actions. When it was over and Henry made a sign to exit the car, she slipped carefully from her seat, rifle once against pressed to her chest and her jacket's zipper up to her nose. She kept lowering the collar by chewing on the upper end of the zipper while looking around. Everything was as she remembered it. The house, the rooms, the kitchen, the family portraits on the shelve in the hallway. Only it was all empty and dusty, like it had been abandoned a long time ago.
Pru swallowed, suggesting her brain that they might have evacuated without being able to tell them. After all they hadn't met since three years ago.
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Post by spiritandsand on Feb 13, 2013 7:57:54 GMT -5
Aira sat like paralyzed watching Henry completely grind the scalefaces in pure rage. She had no expression on her face. She had to see this. If she saw enough of it she would be immune eventually. But it still didn't feel nice.
Without a sound she got out of the car as things settled down starting her search of the house along with the others. She headed for the large basement checking on, inside and under shelves, but there was nut much luck to find. She got up and dusted her cape, but then spotted some sort of writing on the wall. She approached, and dusted the wall; it looked like a map. And under it the words P R U were written. A message for Pru? Really?
"Everyone, come down to the basement, now!", she yelled determined as loud as she could. It didn't matter if they thought she was in danger, this was important enough for them to rush.
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Post by vladimir on Feb 13, 2013 15:03:29 GMT -5
Rey tried his best not to pay attention to what Henry was doing to the scalefaces. Naturally he understood the vitality of terminating them, but the man was having quite some fun with it and Reinhardt could detect some amount of sadistic scorn in his manner of execution. He couldn't help but wonder if Henry had put any thought into how he might like to execute him.
He tried to leave the car after giving it a few paranoid looks, spending some time standing between it and the house before he decided that perhaps he should stay behind and watch it. Besides, they'd need someone to stand guard anyways. Drawing out his shotgun and perching up on the sunroof where he had a better vantage point, Rey watched over their car, the house and their surroundings as best he could.
Then Aira shouted and Rey felt his knuckles go white from gripping on the stock of the gun. Looking desperately between the house and the car, Reinhardt found that he was unsure of his priorities before he decided human interests trumped material interests. He was the last one down the steps, a mixed feeling of relief and irritation welling up in him when he realized they'd been called all the way down here for some writing. Unimpressive; he'd always reserved a special kind of scorn for written language.
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Post by vampirechicken on Feb 19, 2013 1:05:45 GMT -5
(I'm sorry about the delay fellas ALSO I AM DONBOY)
Henry slid into the room rather dramatically, ready to bust more zombie heads, but then he saw she was only looking at a message written on the wall. He stood there for staring at it for a long while until he tore his eyes away and started scrabbling for paper and writing materials around the room.
"Hey kid it looks like your friends didn't abandon you after all." he told Pru when she entered the basement last, he started copying the map and directions from the wall onto some paper, taking care to note the areas marked as known looter territory. It seemed like Prus friends had done their research.
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