SUBPAR COMPILATION - CHAPTER 3 - DAY TWO - THE PARTY
May 8, 2016 16:41:32 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on May 8, 2016 16:41:32 GMT -8
((◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ - We have success! Yes it works. 
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INDEA IS DOING THIS ONE YO!
>>GM
OOC NOTE-- I'm going to be out of the house for a while tomorrow, so I want to get you set up with some fun in the morning while I'm gone. I'm going to 'end' the night here, but feel free to continue roleplaying earlier scenes in your rooms as you wish.
The night seemed rather long, as people took turns staying awake, trying to read books or stare out the window and not fall asleep, as their roommates slept fitfully. It was surprising how DARK night was, without even the faintest hint of electricity. No street lights, no sparkles of city lights in the distance. The windows were covered over with heavy curtains, and candles attempted to provide their weak illumination. For those who peeked behind the curtains, they were rewarded with the most brilliant sky they had ever seen, alive with shimmering stars, no city light to fade them or drown them out.
Time passed, though there were a few scares, no fear was borne out.
Morning happened in slow motion, the sky fading in to a royal blue, and some had had enough of trying to sleep, and just got up.
Chantelle set to work heating the pre-cooked bacon and eggs, and veg-bacon and veg-eggs, and toasting all the toast. Zoe found the best jams that were nearing their expiration, and they set up a nice breakfast. Frozen juices were now normal juices and were served up, perhaps the last cold drink anyone would have until winter. Kettles of coffee boiled over the barbecue's flames.
People filtered in to the community center to get breakfast. Early risers lingered around on the sofa, sipping the old-fashioned coffee with bags under their eyes. Birds chirped incessantly.
Kerry, Basil, Seth, Anna and Kenny were some early risers. Stevie had followed Seth and was dozing in a lounge chair. Kenny was throwing back a lot of coffee.
In time everyone but the laziest of lazybones (or the most exhausted of the exhausted) were in the community center enjoying breakfast. Not present were Bryce, Luke & Volya.
When it seemed like most people were around, Seth stood on a chair to get everyone's attention.
Seth went around to ask some people to join him on the UWMRC trip. Thierry, Davin agreed, Dr. Vic had already agreed. Seth looked for Alex to ask him.
(STARTING A NEW THREAD! "WORK SIGN UP!" CHECK IT OUT WHEN IT'S UP!)
>>INSERT THIS THREAD LATER
>>ALEX
When Alex returned to the apartment with Sarah, he found two new roomies frolicking around the place. Dogs made everything better.
During his guard duty hours, Alex spent forty minutes exercising in the dark - he mainly did push-ups, sit-ups, and stretches, since they were the least disruptive option - and passed the remaining time lounging on his beanbag with Pepper in his lap, thinking.
Since he saw Doretta’s apartment, something had been nagging Alex. It all boiled down to Mary. When the possessed woman at the mall called herself "Mary," he thought she was being sacrilegious. But what if "Mary" had really been the woman’s name? It was a good Christian name - the best, in fact.
And then, Abdhur (he refused to refer to the demon as "Mary" anymore) had remarked,
Doretta, also, had been religious; he gathered that much from the brief glance into her apartment.
Oh no.
Demons had a FETISH for possessing Christians. His heightened fear of hell must have turned Abdhur on. Alex anxiously pulled Pepper closer. The dog wiggled and ruffed softly, then fell back to sleep. As he gently pet Pepper's head, Alex wondered how many religious people belonged to his new group. He'd seen Tyrone praying. Who else? Maybe, it would be safe to take a tally. He just wished he'd converted to Buddhism when he had the chance. Now, with the evidence piled in front of him, he couldn't deny that they were all subjects to a wrathful god.
Alex straightened when Seth praised him. He'd worried that Davin would tell everybody about the pathetic fainting spell last night. "
After a moment's hesitation, he said,
Alex's expression became darker.
When his eyes felt hot, Alex realized he was on the verge of doing another really uncool thing, so he rubbed his face and thought about the bulldogs. That helped. Oh, thank God.
>>GM
>>PATTI
Patti didn't dream. It was probably a blessing. She got up at the first sign of cooing pigeons and went in totuba throw the bathroom. She used her finger to brush her teeth. Maybe they could loot a drug store or something in the near future and get some toothbrushes. She brushed out her hair, which was already beginning to frizz out. She knew heat-styling wasn't good for her hair, but she had found that adopting a "white" hairstyle made relations in the workplace much smoother.
She filled a bucket with water, found some soap and began cleaning as thoroughly as she could. Looking at her hair, she pondered shaving it off. Cleaning this much hair could be a real water waste and dirty hair was just nasty. She eventually settled on rinsing it with the leftover bath water, drying it really well, and brushing it out thoroughly. It wasn't good, but it was better than nothing.
Walking through the living room, she heard Lashonda snoring and Peg making morning sounds. She went into her room and found herself a clean change of clothes. Camouflage pants, brown base layer shirt, and a many-pocketed shirt that matched the pants. She got some fresh socks and put on her hiking boots. She put on her paddle holster, tucked the gun in, and then pulled the outer shirt over the pistol grip. The bulge was obvious, but maybe people would be less uncomfortable with it if it was covered.
She did a little stretching, but didn't bother doing any exercises, because she fully expected she'd be doing some relatively heavy labor at some point today. On her way out of the apartment, she waved good morning to Peg.
>>GM
When Patti arrived in the community center, the only person up was Chantelle, working diligently at preparing breakfast.
Patti wrapped some leftover meats in aluminum foil, then placed the packets onto the grill. She started mixing half-thawed frozen juice concentrates into pitchers.
People started filtering in, most of them actually acknowledging Patti's presence. When the chore board went up, she considered the options. They could use her at the hospital, and she'd like to see how we'll these people hold up in a tactical situation, but she decided not to offer unless asked. If Seth didn't want her around, then she'd honor that sentiment, and leave him to fair however he faired. Hopefully nobody would die.
Peg came over with a plate of food, Patti's was already empty. After a little discussion, they decided they'd work on fortifying the alley and helping build the fence.
>>PATTI
Patti kept her head down and continued working. She had an opinion on the gun issue, but she could tell by Seth's reaction that it wasn't welcome. Good to see he value's input in his leadership decisions. Not that Abdul-Rahman was being tactful, but good advice shouldn't need a cherry on top.
At least the doctor agreed to take one. She was beginning to figure that anyone who refused to accept the presence and utility of firearms had two likely destinies: fabulous luck, in which case, good for them, or death, in which case it would hopefully serve as an object lesson for others. She wasn't jaded enough yet to be pulling for the latter.
To the doctor and the departing group in general -
>>DOCTOR VICTOR
The dawn came up after the doctor who rose with the startling noisy sound of the birds. He began to look around his new bedroom and stared into the relative darkness. Rubbing his eyes, the doctor cast off the sheets and slid off the bed. He half expected to be snuggled by something adorable, cute and slightly unkept, but found no signs of the puppy. He also found no signs of Micah in the bedroom. Hadn't I left the door open?
With a lonely sigh, Dr. Victor began a routine forgotten last night. He exercised; stretching and keeping his grunts to a minimum, the good doctor was shocked how his body began to creak, crackle and pop. Trying to continue became a little more painful; he realized he had exerted himself a bit the last 48 hours and was ashamed he couldn't handle more.
Proceeding to the bathroom, the doctor picked up the razor he had found in the other room, along with a snippet of soap and mug. Scooping up a small amount of water into the mug, Dr. Victor began the tedious time of shaving in the half-light. It was still relatively easy, after all, since he had no goatee to shave around anymore; however, his face still reminded him how thick the hair used to be on his chin.
The splashing of soapy water made him think of camping in the back yard; as a kid, he would 'run away' to the back yard a lot and 'live off the land' for a couple of nights. I guess deluding myself to what this is won't be so bad. The shave finished, the doctor dumped the water down the sink, scooped up more to splash his face and hair, and finished with brushing his teeth with his finger, applying some gender-neutral deodorant, cleaning his ears, and giving himself longing stares in the mirror.
Tugging on the flannel shirt felt a little less rich than he preferred but he'd rather get some nasty shirt covered in nasty infected junk regardless. He did want to scour the closets once he returned for new apparel. He exited the bathroom and entered the living room.
He stopped short of the couch, catching a glimpse of the two rapscallions; frick and frack were lying together, both blissfully unaware of the approaching dawn. The doctor gripped his sides to keep from giggling as he debated which looked cuter, and which he could easier pet and not disturb. He decided it would be best let sleeping dogs lie and moved into the kitchen. The bag holding the coffee beans held to his nose, the good doctor took it with him as an aromatic guard against the coming of the light and the obvious lack of hygiene in the common area.
>>DOCTOR VICTOR
The good doctor approached the morning early crowd holding a bag of coffee beans to his nose. Though rightfully his, he decided it would be prudent to offer them to Chantelle as a sort of peace offering.
He poured himself a large black coffee into his previous mug regarding distaste for Mondays with a small grin. He felt a wee bit better once the caffeine kicked in. The board set up was no different than what he had imagined except for the part regarding the sprinkler system. Wouldn't it be smarter to leave the system as it is? I mean the torches are just a way to kill us all anyways. It looks like half the people in this room hardly would be mindful of fire at night! They can barely make it awake at dawn!
Sipping the coffee allowed the doctor a good practice at sneering behind the mug at people who displeased him. He continued his vigil finding the chatter a little subpar for his tastes. Certainly nobody died or encountered anything interesting. With a shrug and a heave-hi, the doctor moved across the room to the board, appearing to be deeply interested in the chores but using it more as an excuse to ignore everyone else.
>>PATTI
Patti shot the doctor a finger gun. Sweet Jebus, these people were rubbing off on her already.
To Lashonda -
>>DOCTOR VICTOR
The good doctor stretched a little bit. He listened to Seth's words with a mild interest, more giving Patti looks as she assisted the others with the fence. When talk of the gun came up, he knew it would be better to just let Seth play 'leader' and feigned disinterest. With a frown, he spoke sullenly.
Once the gun situation was settled, Dr. Victor payed closer attention to the actual plan. It seemed sound enough for him. He did cast a singular glance towards Patti when he mentioned slightly larger, slower group. The good doctor opened his mouth but clicked it shut. If Patti wanted to go, she would have gone.
The doctor kept the questions quieter than the noises of the building, just in case nosy people were listening in.
>>MICAH
Micah yawned as daylight slowly woke him up. The yawn was regrettable, as the smell of dogbreath greeted it, invading his mouth and nostrils. He sat up slightly giving the pooch a scratch under her little chin. He stretched out his body, thank god the dude who owned this place had clearly been compensating for something.
It took him a few minutes to will himself up. When he couldn't put it off any longer, he picked up the puppy and took her with him. He looked around, it was clearly past dawn, the doctor would hopefully be in the comm centre leaving the bathroom mercifully doctor free.
Micah wandered past the bedroom, placing the puppy on the bed before proceeding to the bathroom. He took off the clothing from yesterday and took out a flannel from the cupboard. He got some soap and water from the bathtub and gave himself a sponge bath. Not very good hygiene? fuck you. The toothbrush was still wet from use, but Micah shrugged proceeding to brush his teeth. Then he quickly shaved using the razor and a touch of soap. Lastly he used the deodorant. Ha! Bad hygiene my arse.
He put the clothing back on and ran his fingers through his hair. There was little point in brushing, his hair had always had a mind of it's own. He wandered back to the bedroom and scooped the puppy up, who had been playing tug of war with the cotton sheets.
He wandered out towards the comm centre, which was full of people in the midst of breakfast, he noticed Seth standing on a chair making another announcement. This really was turning into a hippy commune, Micah shivered.
>>MICAH
Micah wandered over to the breakfast table and helped himself to the spread. He got a little extra bacon for the puppy and an extra sausage. He grinned at Chantelle taking a sip from a mug of coffee.
>>GM
Chantelle smiled, and wiped the pink streaked hair out of her face.
She wanted for him to come closer and took him out on the patio to speak quietly.
>>MICAH
Micah put the puppy down on the floor of the patio, and it scampered off to puppy-eye others into feeding it. He thought about the options, the safe and easy option of cooking, or the dangerous but more exciting job of booze and food hunting.
He was feeling more than a little antsy, fuck it danger it was. What was a party without alcohol and acts of stupidity?
>>GM
>>MICAH
Micah had to double-take, was she for real? What culture? What heritage? Clearly the woman had no idea about Australia. Classic blunder. He had been trying to tone it down lately. It was apart of his lower-class family culture, but who wanted people to know that?
"Uh..yeah I guess. We have a superstition that it keeps the Drop Bears away, maybe it will help with the zombies you know? Whereabouts are Kenny and Derek? I'll grab my sashimi knife."
He fought hard not to crack a smile through the first part. His effort not to laugh made him seem actually sincerely anxious or just really weird. Brilliant!
>>GM
Micah found Derek and Kenny near at hand.
Kenny-
"I can't believe I'm about to go out in the shit again. It's weirdly exciting. I think I'm over worrying if they're still people or not."
Derek-
(weird silence)
Kenny-
"Anyway, we got marching orders from the chef and an appetite for booze. You ready to rock, Mike?"
"Let's fucking do this, but it's Micah not Mike or fucking Mick."
Micah went over to his pile of clothing and shifted out the sashimi knife before following the others downstairs.He tried not to think of how stupid it was. He didn't want to die for fucking pizza and booze.
Reply here if you like, and thence to The Streets - Westlake Avenue for action!
>>GM
Zoe and Frank led Nat down to the 2nd floor, which was a vast, dreary, and mostly empty office space.
Zoe-
"I call this place 'the Poopy Room.' I take the dogs down here and try to get them to poop in the kitchen at least. I put some newspapers over there. Then, you... you know, pick it up. Sometimes I throw it off the roof for fun, but I guess we should probably just put it in the trash.
"You could try to walk more than one dog at a time, but sometimes they go too crazy and then one is pooping somewhere on the carpet and it's too late for you to stop him... It's just a mess. Plus, I think the dogs like to feel special.
"So you could walk your dogs first if you want, Tony and Pepper? I'll walk Frank here, and then someone needs to take the Doctor's little puppy for a walk, Davin has a dog named Rex and then there's this dog named Benji, I think I'll walk him too. You can walk them wherever but they should poop in here, OK?"
>>NAT
"I'll, um, go get the puppy - was it Snoopi? - after dealing with these two. I could get Rex, too... um, which room is Davin's again?"
The two tawny bulldogs crowded around Frank, doing doggy butt-sniff greetings to their fellow canine. Nat tugged them away after a moment.
>>GM
Nat went upstairs to get the puppy Snoopi, and carried her down the stairs to the poopy room. When he stepped out of the stairwell, he heard the sounds of someone opening doors and walking around.
He turned the corner and peered into the office, and saw a young dark-haired man looking through a desk drawer. He looked up at Nat.
He seem to consider something.
>>NAT
>>GM
He continued idly poking through drawers and wandering around.
>>NAT
Nat hesitated a moment.
The puppy yipped and squirmed up to lick Nat's jaw. The blonde laughed quietly and pushed the puppy down, murmuring.
>>GM
Nat left Bryce to his own devices and attended Them Poopy-styled Duties.
>>BEN
Ben slept well, possibly because it was in his very own bed, which was infinitely more comfortable than the floor of the 801 apartment. Sometime during the night he was woken up by Jackson, and after a brief visit to the bathroom Ben spent the rest of the night rereading some of his manga books.
But his heart wasn't in it. If only he had spent his days doing something that could be useful when dealing with ghosts and demons. Hm, didn't he have a few books on that subject? Might as well check those out. Refresh his memory a bit. Maybe there was a slim chance that something could be based on something real? Or the other way around, in case life was imitating art?
At dawn Ben got himself cleaned and ready for the day. Having access to his own clothes meant that he could throw his dirty clothes into the laundry basket and wear a clean white shirt and a clean pair of black pants. Why change a winning combination, right? Ha ha... He wasn't sure how he'd get his blood-caked shoes clean, but he had other shoes to wear, so he just designated the dirty ones as his 'outside shoes'.
>>GM
Ben was instructed to go to apartment 501 to work on chargers with Stevie and Sonya. It was a large empty apartment, but they'd dragged in a folding table, and opened the blinds to use natural light as much as they could. The table was scattered with tools, including battery operated soldering irons. There was an exercise bike with its innards pulled out and rearranged, and little bits of wire and metal everywhere. There were also a couple bags of Doritos on the floor, and a warm 2 liter of Pepsi and mismatched cups.
Sonya was wearing a new top, a plain blue tank top, and her bare arms were tattooed with colorful flowers. She still had her ornately decorated nails, and was carefully wrapping wire, avoiding scratching them.
She smiled warmly at Ben when he entered.
>>BEN
Ben returned Sonya's smile, and nodded to both her and Stevie. Those sure were some pretty tattoos she had. But was he being sent out to go through apartments once again? He could see a slight problem with that, as he had hoped to be able to watch and learn for a while.
>>GM
>>BEN
(Out of curiosity I looked up how much power an exercise bike could generate, and apparently an average person can generate 200W, which could actually power a laptop. But Ben doesn't know that, because that's not really something he's considered before, and now he has no internet, so he can't look it up. And who knows how efficient generators Sonya and Stevie managed to make? The DCU people didn't seem to quite get 200W, and in most photos significantly less.)
"Oh, I don't think I'd be able to make a computer use less energy, or make batteries retain charges. Not unless that's all done on purpose according to some 'planned obsolescence' thing, and it just needs to be reprogrammed. And I've never heard that. But we should be able to keep our existing computers going. Just not with the internet, I guess. I'm sure going to miss that."
"So, things with charges and batteries then? No kitchen appliances that connects directly to the wall?"
>>GM
Sonya-
"Don't worry. We teach you a little electrics and you can help make some."
"I bet Chantelle doesn't need those appliances, but we can verify that before we butcher anything. I'm betting even wall appliances can give us a few parts we can use! This joint is gonna have a charger in every room, plus some for trade with other bozos!"
GM NOTE: If you want to do some creative writing about stuff that happens during the project, go ahead. Put words in Stevie or Sonya's mouths if it helps and we can edit their dialog if we think something slightly different would be better for the characters, but I doubt we'd have to change much.
Sonya is an electrical engineer so she knows about typical wattages and what sort of surge protection would be required, issues with recharging batteries or using them for unintended purposes (car batteries used for kitchen appliances, whatever), and so on. Or if she doesn't know it, she can figure it out.
Stevie knows rudimentary electronics and mechanics, and is the kind of guy to know how to program all the VCRs of the world, but can't program a computer.
They decided music is a priority for sanity and culture purposes, so they're on that. Unfortunately iPods have a habit of getting corrupted or screwed up sometimes, necessitating "Synching" with a computer. To that end, they'll need to power one of those at some point.
And more important than that, they're making as many power generation devices as they can muster, with parts scavenged from useless devices, cars, computers, whatever.
When you're done (or if you don't bother), go to the 6th floor or individual rooms. Don't take Ben too far into the evening because an event has been planned for it!
>>BEN
"Ooh, trade? Good idea! I didn't even think about that."
Ben went out to hunt for appliances, and started out by gathering all the non-kitchen stuff, bringing it back to Sonya and Stevie. "That should keep them supplied for a while," he thought, as he then decided to take a detour to the mail boxes and the loading dock on the first floor. Had his packages arrived? He would prefer not to ask Bryce about it quite yet, and hopefully the slacker hadn't bothered to keep the door locked...
When he returned to his duties, Ben gathered all the kitchen appliances, and took them to the comm center for evaluation. Would Chantelle prefer this mixer or a charger? Well, maybe it'd be a bunch of mixers in exchange for one charger. Hard to say for sure. And hey, could he have a little snack while he was there? Great!
The rest of the day, what little remained until evening, was spent taking apart the appliances and sorting all the components into several boxes and piles, during which Ben got to learn a bit about which components could be used for what. Sonya was of course amazingly talented, and wonderful in every way. And Stevie sure knew his stuff, though Ben frequently had trouble keeping up with the older man's jokes.
Ben had one concern though: His electric shaver was practically out of charge when he had finished shaving that morning, and he had never really learned how to use a razor properly.
>>GM
Ben and company worked hard, but amused themselves by playing music and having Christmas lights blink. It seemed like the most lively place in the building, just three people sitting in folding chairs around a cheap table, tinkering with the innards of man's creations.
Eventually, they went to the Comm Center to put completed generators in the supply center and relax for the evening. PROCEED TO 6th floor thread! Or Ben's apartment, if you prefer. It will be presently sans Jackson.
>>GM
Seth, Thierry, Davin, Alex & Doctor Victor met outside to begin their trip after extensive briefing from Marie about the building, potential entrances and exits, and more.
Patti, Abdul-Rahman, Peg & Lashonda were already beginning the fencing project. They'd found a roll of wire mesh in the building supplies, and were constructing gates which would be put up in front of the cars on one side and the dumpster on the other.
Seth glanced back to his group.
Thierry looked mad dubious, and Davin shook his head. (Dr. V, Alex?)
(INSERT HIS ANSWER HERE AND OR ANY OTHER GUN RELATED STUFFS)
>>GM
Patti and company! Two men emerge from the building across the alley, by one of its emergency exits. At first they are excited and happy, then they get a disappointed look, then they clock the blocked alley exits and look a bit more comfortable. They are unarmed. The latin (or asian?) guy is clutching an iPhone.
Ashley, you see these people!
>>ASHLEY ORIGINS HERE???
>>ASHLEY
Ash-
"Hello. Do you have a safehouse?..The world has gone crazy, my car is in the garage down here." He frowns at the correct direction, and then looks around, a flicker of thrill, and a dash of nervousness in his eyes. He pats his side where he would usually have his gun, keeping an eye out for danger.
He turns around and scans the others. He doesn't say it, but at least a few seem fit to fight. The rest...may need some help, maybe.
>>GM
Abdul-
"This building behind us is our 'safe' house, but safe is a relative term now. Nonetheless, we probably have more water than any place you will find, and a trained chef who has come up with a rationing scheme that can sustain our lives, if not our tastes."
Ivan-
"Hell yeah, bro. Hm. What're your names?" He asked everyone, but was looking at Patti - likely to her choosy and paranoid dismay.
Peg
"I'm Peg, this is LaShonda, Patti, and Abdul-Rahman."
Ivan-
"I'm Ivan and this is Ashley."
Peg-
"Like 'Gone With the Wind' ... Haha. Welcome, guys."
Abdul-
"Your appearance raises a concern in me - how secure is your building from the other street sides? We must know."
Ivan-
"We locked it up pretty good..."
Players feel free to respond to any part of the above, but if your response is meant to come before the end, make clear what you're responding to.
>>PATTI
Patti addressed the newcomers. "If you're fed and have some energy, you can help us with this fence. We've got a team out scavenging for medical supplies as we speak. If you need food or water, one of us can take you upstairs and show you the community center." She paused for a moment.
"I know this is going to sound silly, but apparently the undead aren't good liars, so we've devised a test to make sure you are still among the living."
To Ashley - "What high school did you graduate from?"
To Ivan - "What was your first car?"
After any responses - "No offense intended, gentlemen, but I think some of us would feel better if we double-checked your handiwork in securing the building. When we're done with this fence, some of us can go check it out."
>>ASHLEY
Ash-
"Garfield Highschool. And...who might you be? You can call me Ashley, if you would like."
He stared at the newcomer. She had a certain air of authority, and he had to admit, he kind of liked it. She was really somebody in this middle of nowhere. He spent a moment eyeing her. A little old but well put together, good command.. He faded back into reality and nodded.
"Of course, feel free, we secured the bottom level for the most part, made it impossible for those ghoulies to go in or out." He gestured towards the building aburptly, seeming unnaturally cool-headed for the end of the world. He certainly didn't feel it inside. He had no idea what was going on honestly.
"What do you need done?" He looked at the fence to see if it was, indeed any good and did indeed look like it would hold back hoards of diseased humans. He patted for his gun again reflexively, and then put his pipe down so he could better offer a hand to the others.
>>GM
Ivan easily fell into helping people with the fence. Putting the fence in place drew zombies, but as Ivan and Ashley discovered in the cafe next door, once they were up, the zombies paid the alley even less attention than before.
Just before they went back into the building across the alley to check the security, they were a bit startled by a string tied to a tiny wrench being tossed from the roof. It stayed close to the building, so there was no risk of it hitting anyone. Sandy stood at the top of the line and waved, and Sandy came out of the stairwell to work on the string from the street level.
Sandy-
"The analog doorbell."
Lashonda-
"Ohhh..."
Ivan-
"You guys are on it. I was hating this building yesterday, but it had good neighbors."
Peg-
"Thanks!"
GM NOTE: If you want to RP among yourselves or do some creative writing about stuff that happens during the project, go ahead. I expect Ashley or Ivan to warn Patti (or whoever) before she goes into the Two Dozen Corpse Cafe, but it could still be fun for someone to write about.
When you're done go to the 6th floor or individual rooms. Ashley and Ivan should hang out in the general areas until someone can hook 'em up with a room. See you around!
PS- Don't take the characters too far into the evening, as events have been planned for it.
>>ASHLEY
"The rest of the building, and the surrounding area is extremely dangerous, I would use caution while exploring. Will this really keep them out? They seem more intelligent than something from those old movies I've seen." He grumbles, and seems not to have seen many recent movies. He shifts his footing and some stones found around. They were less interested than before. Strange, they had some fading semblance to humanity still, even in their deranged state. Some even looked human still, but there was something off... He wondered..if they could be cured, or were they truly gone. Did it matter? He wondered about his cat as he helped build the fence, and catches the wrench before it falls too far.
>>GM
"What makes you think they're smarter than the movie stiffs? Man, we got 'em in that hallway and they just kept coming. We get a blind up and they forget we exist in five minutes."
>>ASHLEY
"Because they can speak, it seems, I never thought guys with rotted brains would speak. For that matter, how are people affected by this...whatever it is that's happening." He looks over the wall and wonders about their fate. He puts a few more nails in the make-shift wall, and then sighs.
"Be careful if you are going to inspect our building, miss."
>>PATTI
"Haven't seen any talking zombies yet, but we've seen some demon-possessed folks that did. The ghosts we saw didn't speak, to my memory." To Ash - "I don't exactly plan on going alone." She looked pointedly at the men, then patted a suspicious lump on her hip.
>>GM
Ivan clocked her gesture and responded with appropriate respect. Ye shan't see him checkin' out the Patti again.
He walked to the other end of the alley to help someone with a thing. Abdul gestured for Patti to come to the middle and talk quietly, out of earshot of the new laborers.
>>ASHLEY
Ash stares at Patti quietly, and then seems to nod. "I didn't know there was a difference...I guess, I thought the world hadn't all gone to hell yet. Demons? Ghosts? I thought they were all the same. Oh. I left mine at home, wish I hadn't now. I have some good memories." He picks up the pipe, and stares at her hip longingly. Patti was quite a woman.
"Are you a business-woman? What sort of person were you before the world wound down?" He asks Patti, brushing off his dirty, blood-spattered shirt. He knew he had a good arm for zombie-killing.
>>PATTI
To Ash - "Something like that. I was an administrator at Amazon the last seven years. How about you?" This line of conversation seemed beyond banal in the circumstance and it was annoying Patti, though she was good at not showing her annoyance. One of those skills you develop in the business world.
She caught Abdul-Rahman eyeing her and she excused herself. "Excuse me for a minute." She picked up one of the spools of wire they had been using to secure the fencing material and carried it over to the middle-eastern fellow. She should ask him where he's from some time; it seemed crappy to think of him in such a general way, even if it was only in her internal monologue. Nobody else was standing particularly close to the two of them. She handed the wire to Abdul-Rahman.
"What's the matter?"
"Just four, counting the ones you've seen. And a couple of shotguns. We'll have to have a longer discussion about this later. Nothing personal, but this thing's turned into a democracy and I'm not going to make unilateral decisions about who can and cannot be carrying a firearm. We should have a sit down with Seth and his council when they get back. If they get back."
To Ash - "Sorry about that. Anyway, hmmm... what were we talking about?"
>>ASHLEY
Ash seemed to think that Patti's commanding presence was somewhat reassuring, even if she did not seem to have much of an interest in his conversation. It's alright, they shouldn't talk too much anyways. It pays to listen carefully to their surroundings.
He milled around and seemed ready with his section of piping, he seemed to think this was secure enough to allow the others to leave unattended. He had a systematic way of examining new places, and was very cautious moving around corners, rather than simply being generally cautious, it was strange.
To Abdul: "You don't have to come with us if you feel unsafe. Your safety is always a priority since there are so few of us left." He has a sudden, very serious expression and puts his remaining hand in his pocket.
To Patti: "Nothing of importance. I'd be glad to lend a hand if you're going back to our cafe, as much as I'd like to meet the others. There are others, aren't there?" It certainly seemed like it. He finished working on the fence, at least to his untrained satisfaction, and then brushed his hands off on his clothes.
>>GM
>>ASHLEY
Ash seemed unsure of his own handiwork when he was finished, and was more than happy to reinforce it. He seemed unsure if he should ask for any of the goods, and yet he had not eaten for many hours.
To Patti: " ...I...could use some food. I have money. " As if money mattered in this world, if anything food should be worth its weight in gold.
To Abdul: "You are a military man?" He looks him over, and seems to have a new respect for him.
>>PATTI
Patti laughed at Ash's request. "Yeah, help yourself. Try to take it easy, so other people can have some. There will be a larger, proper meal later. Nobody here's going to deny you food, especially if you're helping with the work. Ivan, you should help yourself too."
The fence workers were a little startled when the folks returned from their pizza run, but they helped them unload the Subaru as quickly as possible. As the wine started coming, Patti recognized that the selection was actually pretty darned good and she looked forward to having some. A little buzz in this situation sounded pretty good, if a little foolhardy.
Once the adjacent building was secured, Patti and the others gathered and organized the unused fencing supplies in to the parking garage, then made their way up to the community center.
HERE!!!
>>GM
Derek, Kenny, and Micah clambered out of the alley over the hoods and roofs of the car-side barricade, and its new fence. They hit the street, already having to engage in violence.Derek used an aluminum bat to murder the nearest zombies. They looked to Micah like they used to be software types, and therefore the scene was a bit reminiscent of jocks pounding nerds in high school - only this time to death.Kenny helped him, using a table-leg club. It made Micah's streetside landing the safest of the three.
The guys started jogging, staying close to buildings to reduce visibility, and quickly killing anything that got between them and the Serious Pie...
The street was littered with items left forgotten in the panic of two nights ago, it was hard to believe it had really only been that long. It wasn't looking very fucking hopeful for the human race at this point. Torn advertisements on walls mocked the scene bellow with their cheesy smiles and now meaningless messages. The zombies were a parody of their former humanity, still clinging to vestiges of their past lives.
Micah was starting to wish he'd been born fifty or so years earlier. If that kid really started this then that made him a worse shitbag than Hitler. Micah seemed to be the only one who doubted that the kid did it though, he said he did but that didn't make it so.
His fellow food hunters were okay, Derek was clearly a self-involved dick but every group had at least one. He jogged after the others attempting to keep them between him and the zombies. One thing he could say, they both handled the zombies well. Derek, a little too much. He reminded Micah of the bullies he'd known at high school.
One zombie, a middle aged man with a shard of glass poking through his business shirt and shattered glasses still hanging off his nose took a lazy swipe at the man. Derek responded by beating the zombie to a bloody pulp, yelling profanities at the zombie's nerve. Fair enough, clearly Derek's IQ level was about the same level. Someone's mommy and daddy didn't pay him enough attention as a child.
Micah relaxed slightly as they got closer to the targeted corner. He was hoping for some red wine or vodka but raiders couldn't be choosers.
>>GM
Derek-
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, and fuckin' DIE, motherfucker!"
Kenny-
"Stop wasting time, dude! We're there!"
Micah was beginning to pity the damn things. He had been landed with fucking Beavis and Butthead. Kenny was now attempting to ride a statue of pink pig. The paint was chipped and the pig had an odd look on his face. The smile was almost ironic, as if it had predicted the current state of things all along. Kenny ended up slipping awkwardly off but landed on his feet.
"Why do you guys call pizza a 'pie'? Makes no fucking sense. Does this place even sell actual meat pies?"
The doors were unlocked. The staff must have tried to make a run for it.
They were able to get inside the heavy wooden door and lock it behind them with a simple lever.
"Serious Pie: A Tom Douglas Restaurant!"
For fun-- the website of this restaurant: seriouspiewestlake.com/ It's actually pretty delicious
Inside was nearly pitch black, only the faintest light coming from the shaded windows on the front side, the back of the restaurant obviously windowless.
Kenny-
"Shit...." he fumbled around through his pockets, "Didn't bring a flashlight..."
Derek-
"Pft, that's because I am the brains of this fuckin' operation. Pre-law?"
He waved a flashlight around.
Kenny-
"It was the middle of the day! Whatever..."
When they finally made it into the place and locked the door, it was pitch black.
Derek must of been granted a couple of brain cells as he'd brought a torch. Micah wished he'd thought that far ahead. Pre-law? Micah was shocked.
A small stand read ' serious biscuit' but it didn't sound like actual biscuits. Instead it had a menu written in chalk. Wood-fired eggs, fancy toppings like artisan truffle cheese and local cherry tomatoes... The room smelled a bit of spoiled eggs. Didn't they call them cookies in America? The eggy smell of the place made him feel slightly ill. It looked like one of those places that claimed gourmet, but only delivered pathetically small serves of the actual gourmet bits of the meal.
To their right, they saw their mecca-- "SOUL WINE". A fully stocked bar, and row upon row of fine wines.
Kenny-
"Goddamn! We gotta get a cart and clean this place out! Booze forever!"
Derek-
"Chill out, we gotta make sure there's nothing in here, idiot."
Micah grinned when he spotted the wine bar, jackpot! Now it was matter of getting it all back to 403. He moved with the other two upstairs, into the dark and dingy part of the restaurant. Micah had the creeps, this felt exactly like walking into a trap. His heart began beating a little faster as they made their way in. He began imagining countless zombie filled encounters, taking his heart along for the ride. The sound of their feet on the floorboards didn't help, it was beginning to feel like some corny 80's horror film. Any minute now...
Wooden stairs lead up, they walked carefully, Derek leading with the flashlight, but the room otherwise pitch dark. They came upon the railing, and entered a lounge with a low ceiling, and dark rustic wood paneling. A sign detailed Wednesday's pizza of the day featuring house pancetta and Greek olives.
They crept around the long wooden tables and benches, shining the beam around and trying to listen over the creak of their feet on the floor.
SGRARRGH!
Micah yelped and almost fell backwards into a nearby table. Derek was standing on the hand of a pale woman, trapped by a fallen table. There was no chance she was among the living, blood drenched her blonde hair and bruises like grotesque sleeves marked her arms. Her pale face and eyes seemed almost luminescent in the harsh glare of Kenny's torch. Micah wondered what went on inside a zombie's head, where there any thoughts or just raw emotions or nerves like a cockroach.
Something shrieked, and Derek practically dropped the flashlight. Kenny wrested it from his hands and shined it around wildly, until they saw the movement on the floor. Derek had his foot on a pale white hand, that was attached to a thrashing figure.
A ghastly white woman was somehow wedged under the wooden bench, dark purple bruising covering her arms and her pale hair matted with blood. She lashed her arms out at Derek until he hopped away, and then she slumped to the floor, almost as though she'd just wanted to be left in peace. She was silent.
Kenny-
"Fuckin' a man!"
He shined the flashlight in her eyes, and stood above her, careful to not be quite within arm's reach.
Kenny-
"You're a zombie, right toots?"
The woman stared blankly into the flashlight and as she lifted her head, a black string of blood oozed from her pale lips. She seemed to make no special reaction to his words other than a vague shuddering.
The shuddering was freaking Micah out, oh god he hoped she was just a fucking zombie.
(((((((((((((HEEEERRRE))))))))))))))))))
Derek had a weird little shudder, then advanced with long strides.
Kenny walked over to Micah, obscuring the Aussie's view of the brutality.
INDEA, Write whatever you'd like about how they go about doing this, put words in anyone's mouth if you feel you need to or just leave a space for an edited response (which you can then edit a re-response into), whatever etc. Describe the whole venture as much or as little as you'd like, I'll fill in the blanks, and then onward!
>>MICAH
Micah was grateful when his view of the carnage was obscured.
"Ugh, your friend is a fucking psychopath, remind me not to get pre-sued. Considering Derek is only pre-law, I think a car might be a safer option. Can either of you hotwire a car though?"
"Haha pre-sued, funny. No problem dude. You guys just get the booze and shit ready!"
Kenny handed the torch over to Micah, before heading back down the stairs and back outside to 'acquire' a vehicle. Which left him alone in the dark with Derek, fantastic. Micah wondered how the guy dealt with spiders. There didn't seem to be any sign of more undead, surely the noise would have alerted them if there were.
"So ah Derek, are you finished venting your anger at your fucking mother, or should I go check out the foodstuffs on my own?"
“Fuck that. I don't think your qualified to make that statement jackass. Let's get it over with. I don't trust you, I know where you come from.”
Micah shrugged, there was no point trying to talk fucking sense to the man. They made their way past the near decapitated corpse, and towards the back of the restaurant and the kitchen. The smell of rotted eggs grew stronger as they got closer, Micah wished he had a hand free to cover his nose and mouth up.He tried not to let his hand shake, he didn't want to show his cowardice in front of this paranoid freak. The shadows cast by the torch almost made Micah jump a couple of times, and he hoped the bigger man wouldn't notice.
The kitchen was set up like your average Italian restaurant, the benches were a kind of grey granite texture on top of the stainless steel. When Micah lifted the torch up, it revealed a kind of mosaic covering the front of the steel-box fans. The mosaic was made up of little tiles of green and yellow forming a diamond pattern across the middle. In the centre of the room were a series of ovens, all with pots still resting on the top, in all different states of the cooking process. A large Pizza oven sat in the middle behind that.
Micah and Derek made their way to the back of the kitchen. It was all going relatively smoothly until Micah stepped on something soft and squishy.
Micah squawked at it, only to find he had stood on a small rat that scurried quickly away hissing.
“Wuss.”
When the reached the larder, the door was still closed but thankfully unlocked. Micah had thought it would be their best bet, he had no idea what Chantelle wanted, but cold and cured meats would last longer. Inside were a few shelves of food like pickles, fetta, canned pineapple, nuts and olives. A few large hunks of cured meat hung in a corner, with a large ham wrapped in a cloth sack. Bags of flour were stacked up along the other side.
“How much can you carry? I think we should take some of those foods like the olives from the shelves, the cured meat and ham, along with a bag of flour.”
(I'm going to guess aprox 20kg (44pds) which is the amount they can do at airports with a bit of effort. Derek would be a reasonably buff guy and would probably lift more than he should anyways.)
“I am not just the brains of this operation, I'm also the fuckin' brawn. I'll take whatever you can't handle.”
“No worries. I'll grab some of the jars and shit, if you take the ham and a few bags of flour.”
Micah found an empty old potato sack and began filling it with the meat, jars and cans of food, anything long-lasting in particular went into the sack. When it was beginning to get heavy, Micah stopped and tied the top of the sack as much as he could.(Micah is carrying about 12kg of stuff)
He hefted it into his arms puffing, and held awkwardly on to the torch and knife underneath. The trip back though the kitchen was uneventful, apart from the occasional expletive when Micah hit himself against a dozen benches. Derek had little problem carrying his load, or at least he wasn't showing it.
When they arrived at the front of the restaurant, Kenny with a once white four-wheel subaru waited patiently out front, the engine running. A few zombies were banging uselessly on the sides, but apart from that it seemed to have attracted little attention. A few zombies had obviously fallen pray to it's wheels, and stream of body parts and innards littered the road behind it. Derek put his load down, and began helping Kenny with bashing the zombies over the head. Splashes of red soon littered the vehicle and the men. Micah thought he saw Derek begin to shake once, but it might have been his imagination.
He realised too late that he probably should have given them a hand. They loaded the vehicle with the food and proceeded then to 'Soul wines' to pick up the booze.
“If there is any champagne, we should save it for Nat. It's his fucking birthday today after all.”
“Good thinking man. You mean the blonde kid right?”
They loaded up the back of the car with as much booze as was physically possible. Derek kept watch over the car, violently bashing any zombie that dared to get too close. One overweight teenager with a missing eye seemed to cop a particular bout of rage when it almost knocked his cap off.
“You FUCKIN' little fuckin' punk. Do you know what this cap is worth, don't you DUMBFUCK??”
Once they had accomplished that, they went up and got a few more bags of flour and cans before heading back towards the 403 building. The afternoon was setting in, and Micah's stomach grumbled slightly at him as they hopped inside the packed vehicle. Derek of course had called shotgun, and Micah was left squished in the back seat, next to the bottles of wine and flour bags. The ride back was quick, and they were soon unloading the vehicle, and passing bottles and bags of flour over the fence and stack of cars, to those waiting behind it.
>>GM
GM NOTE: Tremendous! Mission accomplished! The barricade is a bit of an issue. I'll say the car is a hatchback, and backed into place it's not too hard to unload it into the "hall of cars" and beyond.
The moving had proven far too noisy and laborious. The men were horrified by the growing knot of undead around the alley as they unloaded.
>>MICAH
(I see what you did there hahaha (subtle ;D). I flipped for Micah's self preservation over guilt at not actually helping fight at all. His flight instincts won out I'm afraid)
"Uh yeah...You would, wouldn't you... Good luck mate, we'll finish unloading as quickly as possible. Give em' hell."
Micah grabbed as much as he could physically hold and began heading towards the back door trying to avoid becoming an undead snack. If a Zombie comes too close he will attempt to stab it in the skull.
>>GM
Kenny took off like a shot. Micah wasn't able to get toward the back door, obliged by the awkward jam to stay put with Derek in the car. They looked out at the zombies in disgust. They couldn't open the hatch safely just yet.
The bastards cracked the window on Derek's side a bit, but didn't seem able to do much more just yet. Suddenly, they seemed distracted!
In a process that took about twenty nerve-wracking minutes and a lot of cussing, the men got the car unloaded into the alley. Once in the alley, it was safe from zombies because the work on securing the alley was complete by this time.
The exhausted troops rallied some help carrying stuff to the 6th floor. (Throw any more details on this you want, then await the evening's festivities!)
>>MICAH
Micah couldn't have been a hero even if he wanted to, the door seemed to be jammed shut and was refusing to open. Kenny shot out of the car without another word. It took the zombies a few minutes to react, for a agonising minute it seemed like their were going to stay focused on the car. Micah hoped the guy didn't fall off and really create a disctraction for the zombies. Were the zombies even hungry for human flesh? Now that he thought about it, their were violent but none had actually tried to eat anyone's brains or flesh.
A worrying crack was being created on Derek's window and Micah was freaking out slightly. The zombie's nose was pressed against the glass like a kid at a milk bar and it banged at the window with what looked to be an beaten up orange umbrella. Another was staring at Micah through the window like one would look at a stuffed turkey at christmas.
Suddenly they took off, leaving him and Derek safe again in the car. Micah clambered carefully over the food to the boot and waited impatiently for Derek to open up.
Once freed from the subaru, Micah grabbed the potato sack of food as well as a bottle of wine. He headed through the car maze, swearing at the difficulty created by his load. It took them a full twenty minutes to get everything into the comm centre. Some of the others thankfully gave them hand and soon Micah was slumped in a chair, drinking a grateful glass of juice and biting into a salmon cream cracker. He had been practically useless on the journey, but none of the others had to know. Derek had given him a couple of dirty looks but hadn't said anything. Kenny hadn't become zombie food and joined them in the comm centre a few minutes later.
>>GM
As people finished their day's activities, some returned to their rooms, but many returned to the comm center. Chantelle and a few others were re-decorating, hanging sheets in peculiar ways and setting up various means of lighting and other things. Food had been prepared in advance - nothing that needed to be served warm was out just yet, but maybe later.
Kenny smelled salty like the ocean from running around, and was buzzing from the lingering effect of mortal terror. He sat near Micah, laughing and saying weird shit.
Derek relieved crazy hand Luke from guarding the supply center and brooded there with a water bottle in his hand. Susie would say sympathetic things to him when taking breaks from her own labors.
Tyrone was teaching Bryce and Kaito how to play dominos.
These three finished their business at the supply center, grabbed some water, and sat in some nice chairs.
>>PATTI
The fence workers were a little startled when the folks returned from their pizza run, but they helped them unload the Subaru as quickly as possible. As the wine started coming, Patti recognized that the selection was actually pretty darned good and she looked forward to having some. A little buzz in this situation sounded pretty good, if a little foolhardy.
Once the adjacent building was secured, Patti and the others gathered and organized the unused fencing supplies in to the parking garage, then made their way up to the community center.
Before the party got kicked off proper, Patti had an idea for a present that was neither too personal nor too presumptuous. She went down to the third floor where she was fairly certain she had seen it. It was so late last night that she hadn't thought to take it for herself, but today it would serve a more selfless purpose.
>>PARTAY BEGINS HERE!!!
>>GM ADD IN SCENE DESCRIPTIONS
>>GM — PATTI’S ROOM
Peg folded her arms and looked at Lashonda.
>>GM — MARIE’S ROOM
Zoe-
"SORRY!"
Marie-
"I'm sorry... that board games are really not my thing."
Zoe-
"What do you want to do then? Maybe I could put you in a wheelie chair and wheel you around the party."
Marie-
(smiles) "Aw, that's sweet of you. I don't think we have a wheelie chair though."
Zoe-
"Hm, yeah maybe our kitchen chairs don't move enough. Want me to get you a grownup?"
Marie-
"No no, I'll play games with you, but maybe not Sorry. What is this stuff even supposed to be? It's too abstract. Do we have Monopoly?"
Zoe-
"Monopoly's too hard! Maybe... Mouse trap?"
Marie-
"Hm, I don't know... too many moving parts. Isn't that game a choking hazard?"
Zoe-
(raises an eyebrow) "Maybe if you're a baby... Do you think I would try to eat it?"
Marie-
"Maybe I would..."
Kerry-
"What a doll." Kerry sat on a moderately comfortable chair and watched the two while sipping wine.
Marie-
Looked to Kerry "She's a board game shark. I'm going to lose my shirt."
Zoe-
*GASP* "Then you'd be naked!"
Ivan-
"Haha. Uh, weird conversation?" He looked at Marie "I heard this was the office..."
Marie-
"In a sense, yes. You're new and need a room?"
Ivan-
"Yes ma'am."
Marie-
"I'll make sure you've got a place to sleep tonight. Consider having a roommate, as protection against ghosts."
Ivan-
"Hey, are you pina? If you don't mind..."
Marie-
"Sansei. Japanese American."
Ivan-
"Cool."
>>GM - SANDY & SONYA’S ROOM
She produced a fu-fu sundress with frilly frilly forever everything.
Sonya went in the other room to try on the silly dress. Davin poked his head in the door. He was wearing a rather dapper suit, a perk of being a former resident.
He came in and stood near the cushions, feeling a bit silly to sit on the floor, folding his arms behind his back in an attempt to look casual.
She smiled.
Davin nodded.
Sonya peeked her head out of the bathroom.
))INDEA IS DOING THIS ONE YO!
>>GM
OOC NOTE-- I'm going to be out of the house for a while tomorrow, so I want to get you set up with some fun in the morning while I'm gone. I'm going to 'end' the night here, but feel free to continue roleplaying earlier scenes in your rooms as you wish.
The night seemed rather long, as people took turns staying awake, trying to read books or stare out the window and not fall asleep, as their roommates slept fitfully. It was surprising how DARK night was, without even the faintest hint of electricity. No street lights, no sparkles of city lights in the distance. The windows were covered over with heavy curtains, and candles attempted to provide their weak illumination. For those who peeked behind the curtains, they were rewarded with the most brilliant sky they had ever seen, alive with shimmering stars, no city light to fade them or drown them out.
Time passed, though there were a few scares, no fear was borne out.
Morning happened in slow motion, the sky fading in to a royal blue, and some had had enough of trying to sleep, and just got up.
Chantelle set to work heating the pre-cooked bacon and eggs, and veg-bacon and veg-eggs, and toasting all the toast. Zoe found the best jams that were nearing their expiration, and they set up a nice breakfast. Frozen juices were now normal juices and were served up, perhaps the last cold drink anyone would have until winter. Kettles of coffee boiled over the barbecue's flames.
People filtered in to the community center to get breakfast. Early risers lingered around on the sofa, sipping the old-fashioned coffee with bags under their eyes. Birds chirped incessantly.
Kerry, Basil, Seth, Anna and Kenny were some early risers. Stevie had followed Seth and was dozing in a lounge chair. Kenny was throwing back a lot of coffee.
Kenny-
"Goddamnit, I couldn't sleep. Everybody's making too much noise."
Seth-
"Yeah, I only did a little... I kept having nightmares about mutant pizzas, and then I'd wake up and go back to sleep, and it'd be like, naked ladies with pizzas for boobs trying to get cheese on me..."
Kenny-
"Why would you have dreams like that? Did your mom eat pizza while breast-feeding you or something?"
Seth-
"Stevie, apparently a boob and pizza fan."
Kenny-
"Ah. I can see that."
Seth-
"People were making too much noise? I hope it wasn't me, I'm next door."
Kenny-
"Oh no, just... I think Derek was having some kind of night terrors. Pretty freaky."
Kerry-
"Oh no... That's certain to happen more now. Do you think it was about what's been going on?"
Kenny-
"I dunno, probably. I'd be halfway asleep and then AUGHHH BOOGA BOOGA" and then he's asleep and I'm not."
Seth-
"Ohhh THAT's what that was. I think that was in my dreams. Pizza ladies were screaming at me. Yikes."
"Kerry-
"Ah. I wonder if we'll have to reinvent psychotherapy."
Seth-
"Oh..! That's a good idea Kerry. I was glad we found a doctor, but we could use a psychiatrist too, couldn't we?"
Kerry-
"In my experience there's such a mixed bag, we'd probably find a bozo."
Seth-
"Heh. Well, maybe as we find jobs for people around the building, being a counselor could be one. Nobody's trained, but I bet someone's a good listener."
Kerry-
*smiles*
In time everyone but the laziest of lazybones (or the most exhausted of the exhausted) were in the community center enjoying breakfast. Not present were Bryce, Luke & Volya.
When it seemed like most people were around, Seth stood on a chair to get everyone's attention.
Seth-
"Hey! This isn't a meeting really, but just spread the word-- we're gonna start a sign in on the board for jobs around the building. We'll figure out a rotation for some basic chores, but it'll all be on the board! Also, me and some folks are gonna go out to get some medical supplies today. When we get back, this evening we're going to have a special treat for everyone for working so hard!"
Kenny-
"He's gonna give us Scooby snacks."
Derek-
*laughed too loudly*
Seth went around to ask some people to join him on the UWMRC trip. Thierry, Davin agreed, Dr. Vic had already agreed. Seth looked for Alex to ask him.
Seth (wherever he finds Alex)-
"Hey you did really great outside the other day, and I know another ball player is gonna be a fast runner. Wanna come with us today to get some medicine with the Doctor?"
(STARTING A NEW THREAD! "WORK SIGN UP!" CHECK IT OUT WHEN IT'S UP!)
>>INSERT THIS THREAD LATER
>>ALEX
When Alex returned to the apartment with Sarah, he found two new roomies frolicking around the place. Dogs made everything better.
"Nat. Is. A. GENIUS."Alex played with the bulldogs until bedtime, his voice an octave higher whenever he said,
"Good girl! Where's my sock? Where is it?"
During his guard duty hours, Alex spent forty minutes exercising in the dark - he mainly did push-ups, sit-ups, and stretches, since they were the least disruptive option - and passed the remaining time lounging on his beanbag with Pepper in his lap, thinking.
Since he saw Doretta’s apartment, something had been nagging Alex. It all boiled down to Mary. When the possessed woman at the mall called herself "Mary," he thought she was being sacrilegious. But what if "Mary" had really been the woman’s name? It was a good Christian name - the best, in fact.
And then, Abdhur (he refused to refer to the demon as "Mary" anymore) had remarked,
"Your world is so much less vital than the elder times, the times kept alive in the hearts of people like young Alex here. The times when people knew well the fire beneath their feet ..."She was praising him. Alex remembered every word, whether he liked it or not. He possessed quite the memory, actually, which is why he couldn't play cards with a single deck. Stupid Uncle Brick taught him how to count them, and he couldn't help himself anymore. Alex spent the next few minutes being angry at his uncle. Then, he continued thinking about important matters. But why would a demon praise his piety and fear of hell?
Doretta, also, had been religious; he gathered that much from the brief glance into her apartment.
Oh no.
Demons had a FETISH for possessing Christians. His heightened fear of hell must have turned Abdhur on. Alex anxiously pulled Pepper closer. The dog wiggled and ruffed softly, then fell back to sleep. As he gently pet Pepper's head, Alex wondered how many religious people belonged to his new group. He'd seen Tyrone praying. Who else? Maybe, it would be safe to take a tally. He just wished he'd converted to Buddhism when he had the chance. Now, with the evidence piled in front of him, he couldn't deny that they were all subjects to a wrathful god.
Alex straightened when Seth praised him. He'd worried that Davin would tell everybody about the pathetic fainting spell last night. "
Yeah! Yeah, that'll be good. And since it's Nat's birthday and all, maybe we can keep an eye out for some gifts. Medicine places usually have suckers and little teddy bears, right? For the kids?"Wait. Nat wasn't a girl. He wouldn't want a teddy bear. God, Alex was the worst when it came to birthday presents.
"I mean, uh, the bear would be for Zoe. Maybe we can grab one of those bottled Starbucks Frappuccino things. Nat was a barista!"Alex may have failed Emiliano, but Nat's party would be the hottest event this side of the Apocalypse.
Seth-
"Aw! That's the little blonde guy right? You're such a nice friend. Well, there's a secret thing going on tonight, I'm sure we can work in a little birthday fun into at well. "
After a moment's hesitation, he said,
"Also, uh, we gotta hold a meeting or something later. I might've figured out who's high-risk for possession."
Seth-
"Really? Well let me know any time, that one's a real puzzler for me at least. We can bring it up tonight for sure."
Alex's expression became darker.
"Seth, up there in Westlake, I was almost possessed. Look, we better stay far away from churches, when we're out and about in the city. That's all I got to say. And you keep an eye on me."He touched his crucifix.
"I'm sorry. I think I know the warning signs, though. Whispering voices ... if I tell you to kill me, then kill me fast."
When his eyes felt hot, Alex realized he was on the verge of doing another really uncool thing, so he rubbed his face and thought about the bulldogs. That helped. Oh, thank God.
Seth-
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry that happened to you, Alex. So you think they prey on religious people? That's terrible... Doretta was very religious, that's true. I wonder if knowing protects you though? You were able to fight it off, so maybe it's a test of willpower too. Thanks for telling me, let's talk more later."
>>GM
"I was pitcher,"Alex said.
"No way I have your speed, Seth. But betcha that I can throw something faster than a speeding bullet."He most certainly could not.
"Anyway, I'm ready. Heh. I want you to remember some inspiring words that someone else might have told you over the course of your lives, and go out there and win!"Alex laughed, for some reason.
Seth-
"Hey nice! I wonder if there's some kind of weapon that would make use of that skill..."
Thierry-
"Throwing rocks? It works for baboons."
Seth-
"Might actually be hard to find rocks in the city-- OK this is silly. I'll sleep on it, Alex."
>>PATTI
Patti didn't dream. It was probably a blessing. She got up at the first sign of cooing pigeons and went in to
She filled a bucket with water, found some soap and began cleaning as thoroughly as she could. Looking at her hair, she pondered shaving it off. Cleaning this much hair could be a real water waste and dirty hair was just nasty. She eventually settled on rinsing it with the leftover bath water, drying it really well, and brushing it out thoroughly. It wasn't good, but it was better than nothing.
Walking through the living room, she heard Lashonda snoring and Peg making morning sounds. She went into her room and found herself a clean change of clothes. Camouflage pants, brown base layer shirt, and a many-pocketed shirt that matched the pants. She got some fresh socks and put on her hiking boots. She put on her paddle holster, tucked the gun in, and then pulled the outer shirt over the pistol grip. The bulge was obvious, but maybe people would be less uncomfortable with it if it was covered.
She did a little stretching, but didn't bother doing any exercises, because she fully expected she'd be doing some relatively heavy labor at some point today. On her way out of the apartment, she waved good morning to Peg.
>>GM
When Patti arrived in the community center, the only person up was Chantelle, working diligently at preparing breakfast.
"Good morning, got any tea?"Chantelle pointed her to a lightly steaming teapot.
"Mm, thanks."She filled a coffee mug with the steamy, greenish liquid. She stirred in a teaspoon of honey, set the glass down.
"What can I do to help?"
Patti wrapped some leftover meats in aluminum foil, then placed the packets onto the grill. She started mixing half-thawed frozen juice concentrates into pitchers.
People started filtering in, most of them actually acknowledging Patti's presence. When the chore board went up, she considered the options. They could use her at the hospital, and she'd like to see how we'll these people hold up in a tactical situation, but she decided not to offer unless asked. If Seth didn't want her around, then she'd honor that sentiment, and leave him to fair however he faired. Hopefully nobody would die.
Peg came over with a plate of food, Patti's was already empty. After a little discussion, they decided they'd work on fortifying the alley and helping build the fence.
"Was Lashonda even awake when you left?"
Peg-
"Haha, yeah, I got her up. I'm used to getting up this early, but she was swing-shift. I wonder if we're all going to be like lumberjacks pretty soon? Not very convenient to be a night person unless you like guard duty."
>>PATTI
Patti kept her head down and continued working. She had an opinion on the gun issue, but she could tell by Seth's reaction that it wasn't welcome. Good to see he value's input in his leadership decisions. Not that Abdul-Rahman was being tactful, but good advice shouldn't need a cherry on top.
At least the doctor agreed to take one. She was beginning to figure that anyone who refused to accept the presence and utility of firearms had two likely destinies: fabulous luck, in which case, good for them, or death, in which case it would hopefully serve as an object lesson for others. She wasn't jaded enough yet to be pulling for the latter.
"Peg, can you hand me those wire cutters? Thanks."
To the doctor and the departing group in general -
"Come back in one piece, we're not ready for another election so soon."
>>DOCTOR VICTOR
The dawn came up after the doctor who rose with the startling noisy sound of the birds. He began to look around his new bedroom and stared into the relative darkness. Rubbing his eyes, the doctor cast off the sheets and slid off the bed. He half expected to be snuggled by something adorable, cute and slightly unkept, but found no signs of the puppy. He also found no signs of Micah in the bedroom. Hadn't I left the door open?
With a lonely sigh, Dr. Victor began a routine forgotten last night. He exercised; stretching and keeping his grunts to a minimum, the good doctor was shocked how his body began to creak, crackle and pop. Trying to continue became a little more painful; he realized he had exerted himself a bit the last 48 hours and was ashamed he couldn't handle more.
Proceeding to the bathroom, the doctor picked up the razor he had found in the other room, along with a snippet of soap and mug. Scooping up a small amount of water into the mug, Dr. Victor began the tedious time of shaving in the half-light. It was still relatively easy, after all, since he had no goatee to shave around anymore; however, his face still reminded him how thick the hair used to be on his chin.
The splashing of soapy water made him think of camping in the back yard; as a kid, he would 'run away' to the back yard a lot and 'live off the land' for a couple of nights. I guess deluding myself to what this is won't be so bad. The shave finished, the doctor dumped the water down the sink, scooped up more to splash his face and hair, and finished with brushing his teeth with his finger, applying some gender-neutral deodorant, cleaning his ears, and giving himself longing stares in the mirror.
Tugging on the flannel shirt felt a little less rich than he preferred but he'd rather get some nasty shirt covered in nasty infected junk regardless. He did want to scour the closets once he returned for new apparel. He exited the bathroom and entered the living room.
He stopped short of the couch, catching a glimpse of the two rapscallions; frick and frack were lying together, both blissfully unaware of the approaching dawn. The doctor gripped his sides to keep from giggling as he debated which looked cuter, and which he could easier pet and not disturb. He decided it would be best let sleeping dogs lie and moved into the kitchen. The bag holding the coffee beans held to his nose, the good doctor took it with him as an aromatic guard against the coming of the light and the obvious lack of hygiene in the common area.
>>DOCTOR VICTOR
The good doctor approached the morning early crowd holding a bag of coffee beans to his nose. Though rightfully his, he decided it would be prudent to offer them to Chantelle as a sort of peace offering.
"It is whole bean coffee so I am not sure if you wanted be to use the electric mill or bang it out with a mortar and pestle. It's all fine with me, Miss, so I thought I could give back a portion of my rewards for the room. Your cooking is great for someone of your age."
He poured himself a large black coffee into his previous mug regarding distaste for Mondays with a small grin. He felt a wee bit better once the caffeine kicked in. The board set up was no different than what he had imagined except for the part regarding the sprinkler system. Wouldn't it be smarter to leave the system as it is? I mean the torches are just a way to kill us all anyways. It looks like half the people in this room hardly would be mindful of fire at night! They can barely make it awake at dawn!
Sipping the coffee allowed the doctor a good practice at sneering behind the mug at people who displeased him. He continued his vigil finding the chatter a little subpar for his tastes. Certainly nobody died or encountered anything interesting. With a shrug and a heave-hi, the doctor moved across the room to the board, appearing to be deeply interested in the chores but using it more as an excuse to ignore everyone else.
>>PATTI
Patti shot the doctor a finger gun. Sweet Jebus, these people were rubbing off on her already.
To Lashonda -
"Maybe they'll come back with a hairstylist. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Lashonda-
"Oh man, don't get my hopes up. I'm plannin' on shaving it off tomorrow. Maybe we can raid the beauty supply store? Damn, we'd have to go to Westlake for that though... ugh. Figures gentrification would still be fuckin' my shit up even in the apocalypse."
>>DOCTOR VICTOR
The good doctor stretched a little bit. He listened to Seth's words with a mild interest, more giving Patti looks as she assisted the others with the fence. When talk of the gun came up, he knew it would be better to just let Seth play 'leader' and feigned disinterest. With a frown, he spoke sullenly.
"I will hold the gun. I have been shown how to use it. I most certainly will not be using it unless in the most dire of circumstances. If you have no faith in me, Abdul, that is one thing. It is not wise to second guess Seth's judgement; keep your concerns to yourself until the opportunity arises to address petty issues. I'd even go so far to say it is tactless."
Once the gun situation was settled, Dr. Victor payed closer attention to the actual plan. It seemed sound enough for him. He did cast a singular glance towards Patti when he mentioned slightly larger, slower group. The good doctor opened his mouth but clicked it shut. If Patti wanted to go, she would have gone.
"I am ready to go. I can put the gun in the dufflebag I emptied. I hope they do not attempt to make a spectacle of it all. Have you thought what you are going to say or how we are going to appear? What do we prepare for their reactions?"
The doctor kept the questions quieter than the noises of the building, just in case nosy people were listening in.
Seth-
"Good question Doctor. We don't have a lot to offer them, but I have a pack here with a few candy bars and some bacon. Marie says their biggest concern is going to be a lack of food, all organic fresh-made in their cafeteria and I bet it's already spoiled. --and who doesn't like bacon? Also, I thought we could offer some information, in case they don't know some of the tricks we know so far.
"I'd like us to present ourselves as looking for an alliance, rather than people in desperate need. Lead doc might not be the most... generous, but I think if he believes we'll be useful people to know later, he might be more so."
>>MICAH
Micah yawned as daylight slowly woke him up. The yawn was regrettable, as the smell of dogbreath greeted it, invading his mouth and nostrils. He sat up slightly giving the pooch a scratch under her little chin. He stretched out his body, thank god the dude who owned this place had clearly been compensating for something.
It took him a few minutes to will himself up. When he couldn't put it off any longer, he picked up the puppy and took her with him. He looked around, it was clearly past dawn, the doctor would hopefully be in the comm centre leaving the bathroom mercifully doctor free.
Micah wandered past the bedroom, placing the puppy on the bed before proceeding to the bathroom. He took off the clothing from yesterday and took out a flannel from the cupboard. He got some soap and water from the bathtub and gave himself a sponge bath. Not very good hygiene? fuck you. The toothbrush was still wet from use, but Micah shrugged proceeding to brush his teeth. Then he quickly shaved using the razor and a touch of soap. Lastly he used the deodorant. Ha! Bad hygiene my arse.
He put the clothing back on and ran his fingers through his hair. There was little point in brushing, his hair had always had a mind of it's own. He wandered back to the bedroom and scooped the puppy up, who had been playing tug of war with the cotton sheets.
"Bad fucking Emergency Rations, bad! "He grinned.
"Let's go see what going on in the land of the fucking living, shall we?"
He wandered out towards the comm centre, which was full of people in the midst of breakfast, he noticed Seth standing on a chair making another announcement. This really was turning into a hippy commune, Micah shivered.
>>MICAH
Micah wandered over to the breakfast table and helped himself to the spread. He got a little extra bacon for the puppy and an extra sausage. He grinned at Chantelle taking a sip from a mug of coffee.
"Morning, sleep well? What fun kitcheny-like duties do we have today?"
>>GM
Chantelle smiled, and wiped the pink streaked hair out of her face.
Chantelle-
"You signed up for my job? Oh cool! This is going to be great. Just... it's kind of a secret, until tonight."
She wanted for him to come closer and took him out on the patio to speak quietly.
Chantelle-
"There's going to be a party tonight. Kind of a 'get to know each other' thing, and a reward for working hard. Also, it's that little blonde kid's birthday today, so I made him a cake. Basically we're just going to put together some nice party foods, and clean up the community center, make some simple decorations... Should be fun!
I heard some people want to try to raid this pizza place nearby for food, and maybe some booze. It's just on the corner over here-- probably not a lot in it because it's only got one door. Would you rather do that or just do some cooking?"
>>MICAH
Micah put the puppy down on the floor of the patio, and it scampered off to puppy-eye others into feeding it. He thought about the options, the safe and easy option of cooking, or the dangerous but more exciting job of booze and food hunting.
He was feeling more than a little antsy, fuck it danger it was. What was a party without alcohol and acts of stupidity?
"Umm who is going on the pizza place run? What if we run into fucking zombies?"
>>GM
Chantelle-
"Kenny and Derek were talking about it, they're pretty strong guys, they helped clear zombies out of here the other day. They say it's just on the corner so if you guys run in there and keep the door closed, it's really small on the inside so there shouldn't be much in there. I don't know that, that's up to you, there's plenty of work to do around here.
By the way, is it important to your cultural heritage to swear? I understand if that's the case, it's really important to maintain your cultural identity."
>>MICAH
Micah had to double-take, was she for real? What culture? What heritage? Clearly the woman had no idea about Australia. Classic blunder. He had been trying to tone it down lately. It was apart of his lower-class family culture, but who wanted people to know that?
"Uh..yeah I guess. We have a superstition that it keeps the Drop Bears away, maybe it will help with the zombies you know? Whereabouts are Kenny and Derek? I'll grab my sashimi knife."
He fought hard not to crack a smile through the first part. His effort not to laugh made him seem actually sincerely anxious or just really weird. Brilliant!
>>GM
Micah found Derek and Kenny near at hand.
Kenny-
"I can't believe I'm about to go out in the shit again. It's weirdly exciting. I think I'm over worrying if they're still people or not."
Derek-
(weird silence)
Kenny-
"Anyway, we got marching orders from the chef and an appetite for booze. You ready to rock, Mike?"
"Let's fucking do this, but it's Micah not Mike or fucking Mick."
Micah went over to his pile of clothing and shifted out the sashimi knife before following the others downstairs.He tried not to think of how stupid it was. He didn't want to die for fucking pizza and booze.
Reply here if you like, and thence to The Streets - Westlake Avenue for action!
>>GM
Zoe and Frank led Nat down to the 2nd floor, which was a vast, dreary, and mostly empty office space.
Zoe-
"I call this place 'the Poopy Room.' I take the dogs down here and try to get them to poop in the kitchen at least. I put some newspapers over there. Then, you... you know, pick it up. Sometimes I throw it off the roof for fun, but I guess we should probably just put it in the trash.
"You could try to walk more than one dog at a time, but sometimes they go too crazy and then one is pooping somewhere on the carpet and it's too late for you to stop him... It's just a mess. Plus, I think the dogs like to feel special.
"So you could walk your dogs first if you want, Tony and Pepper? I'll walk Frank here, and then someone needs to take the Doctor's little puppy for a walk, Davin has a dog named Rex and then there's this dog named Benji, I think I'll walk him too. You can walk them wherever but they should poop in here, OK?"
>>NAT
"The Poopy Room, huh? That seems appropriate," Nat laughed, smiling at Zoe. With Tony and Pepper bouncing around his feet, Nat seemed to be in a very good mood (particularly in contrast with some of the other survivors this morning!)
"Let's, uh, just put it in the trash for now. There are people on the ground doing things, wouldn't want to drop poop on their heads, right?"
Zoe-
"Hahaha! Yeah, that's funny. Sometimes I hope it will get on a zombie... I guess they probably don't even care though."
"I'll, um, go get the puppy - was it Snoopi? - after dealing with these two. I could get Rex, too... um, which room is Davin's again?"
Zoe-
"Yeah it's Snoopi unless the doctor renamed her or something. She's really small so you might have to carry her down the stairs. Davin's room is on the 4th floor --DON'T GO IN THE BAD ROOM! There's red tape on it, everyone said don't go in there because it's really gross and there was a monster but it's dead now."
The two tawny bulldogs crowded around Frank, doing doggy butt-sniff greetings to their fellow canine. Nat tugged them away after a moment.
"Tony! Pepper! C'mon, time for walkies!"He lead the two away, keeping near to the paper-covered tile floors for easy clean-up.
>>GM
Nat went upstairs to get the puppy Snoopi, and carried her down the stairs to the poopy room. When he stepped out of the stairwell, he heard the sounds of someone opening doors and walking around.
He turned the corner and peered into the office, and saw a young dark-haired man looking through a desk drawer. He looked up at Nat.
Bryce-
"Oh man. Poop duty huh?"
He seem to consider something.
Bryce-
"Hey, you look kind of nervous... Are you on 'Carimsidol' by any chance? One of the new anti-anxiety/depression m...? Nope... Shit. I'll keep lookin.' "
>>NAT
Nat smiled at Bryce, holding the squirmy puppy to his chest.
"Oh, yeah. It, um, it isn't so bad."
"Huh? Oh, n-no, sorry. Um. Was on Trazodone for a while, but n-not anymore. You, um, think someone stashed something... in the desks?"Nat calmed the puppy, frowning a little.
"I-I guess the bathrooms are all cleaned out already, huh? That's, um, that's where I'd keep... medication..."
>>GM
Bryce-
"Yeah, thanks man. I'm lookin' everywhere. I uh, I ran out... you know how the withdrawal is probably. Fucking... Derek. He's my roommate and he won't let me even look at the medicine stash upstairs. I'm sure someone's got it, it's the new thing they're handing out to everyone, but since I'm the 'drug kid' I don't even get that, since it doesn't have my name on it. Some shit.. like anyone's gonna try to get high off anti-Ds? Ugh. Well, thanks anyway, sorry to bug you."
He continued idly poking through drawers and wandering around.
>>NAT
Nat hesitated a moment.
"Um... I could help you look? After I'm done helping Zoe with-with the animals, anyway. You um..."Nat made a face, unsure of how to ask.
"You have, um, depression? I-I mean, you... can't really get high off of those, can you?"
Bryce-
"Naw, I mean ADD meds are way better for that. Or anti-psychotics if you like to live dangerously... It's not exactly depression, like a bit bipolar with high anxiety. Whatever, it's everybody these days, isn't it?"
The puppy yipped and squirmed up to lick Nat's jaw. The blonde laughed quietly and pushed the puppy down, murmuring.
"Allright, allright..."
"Um. I'm Nat, by the way. I... I don't know if I caught your name? But, um, I'll-I'll see you around, I suppose."He smiled awkwardly, giving Bryce a moment to reply before taking the puppy to the 'Poopy Room'.
Bryce-
"Yeah, neither of us looks like the type to be going anywhere soon, no offense. Peace out."
>>GM
Nat left Bryce to his own devices and attended Them Poopy-styled Duties.
>>BEN
Ben slept well, possibly because it was in his very own bed, which was infinitely more comfortable than the floor of the 801 apartment. Sometime during the night he was woken up by Jackson, and after a brief visit to the bathroom Ben spent the rest of the night rereading some of his manga books.
But his heart wasn't in it. If only he had spent his days doing something that could be useful when dealing with ghosts and demons. Hm, didn't he have a few books on that subject? Might as well check those out. Refresh his memory a bit. Maybe there was a slim chance that something could be based on something real? Or the other way around, in case life was imitating art?
At dawn Ben got himself cleaned and ready for the day. Having access to his own clothes meant that he could throw his dirty clothes into the laundry basket and wear a clean white shirt and a clean pair of black pants. Why change a winning combination, right? Ha ha... He wasn't sure how he'd get his blood-caked shoes clean, but he had other shoes to wear, so he just designated the dirty ones as his 'outside shoes'.
>>GM
Ben was instructed to go to apartment 501 to work on chargers with Stevie and Sonya. It was a large empty apartment, but they'd dragged in a folding table, and opened the blinds to use natural light as much as they could. The table was scattered with tools, including battery operated soldering irons. There was an exercise bike with its innards pulled out and rearranged, and little bits of wire and metal everywhere. There were also a couple bags of Doritos on the floor, and a warm 2 liter of Pepsi and mismatched cups.
Sonya was wearing a new top, a plain blue tank top, and her bare arms were tattooed with colorful flowers. She still had her ornately decorated nails, and was carefully wrapping wire, avoiding scratching them.
She smiled warmly at Ben when he entered.
Sonya-
"Ben! You help us with our work? It's fun, but hard. Stevie is funny guy."
Stevie-
"I aim to please."
Sonya-
"Maybe you help us look for parts? We can take bits out of other appliance to use. Or what do you think?"
>>BEN
Ben returned Sonya's smile, and nodded to both her and Stevie. Those sure were some pretty tattoos she had. But was he being sent out to go through apartments once again? He could see a slight problem with that, as he had hoped to be able to watch and learn for a while.
"I don't really have any practical experience with electric engineering, so I'm not really sure what to look for," he explained. "But perhaps I could just go get all the appliances that no one seems likely to use? Well, at least the ones that look like they contain useful bits... Anything in particular I should look for?"
>>GM
Sonya-
"Oh sure! Let's see... Sometimes hard to find the right part, but anything for charges, like camera, phone... I know when they go through apartment, electrics are useless so they leave them. Maybe you bring some here and we can sort through and find something good!"
Stevie-
"Yeah, and like... iphones and ipods. They got some use too, laptops... Seems like all these little gadgets go to shit over time even if we can get juice in 'em, but maybe we can figure out some ways to get around that. Get one of you computer dudes on it since they're never comin' out with a new one now..."
Sonya-
"Aw Stevie, that's depressing thought. Ben I think we get a laptop charged soon, you do computer work right? I wonder if we can make new computer someday that take less power. I want to play games again, haha..."
>>BEN
(Out of curiosity I looked up how much power an exercise bike could generate, and apparently an average person can generate 200W, which could actually power a laptop. But Ben doesn't know that, because that's not really something he's considered before, and now he has no internet, so he can't look it up. And who knows how efficient generators Sonya and Stevie managed to make? The DCU people didn't seem to quite get 200W, and in most photos significantly less.)
"Oh, I don't think I'd be able to make a computer use less energy, or make batteries retain charges. Not unless that's all done on purpose according to some 'planned obsolescence' thing, and it just needs to be reprogrammed. And I've never heard that. But we should be able to keep our existing computers going. Just not with the internet, I guess. I'm sure going to miss that."
"So, things with charges and batteries then? No kitchen appliances that connects directly to the wall?"
>>GM
Sonya-
"Don't worry. We teach you a little electrics and you can help make some."
"I bet Chantelle doesn't need those appliances, but we can verify that before we butcher anything. I'm betting even wall appliances can give us a few parts we can use! This joint is gonna have a charger in every room, plus some for trade with other bozos!"
GM NOTE: If you want to do some creative writing about stuff that happens during the project, go ahead. Put words in Stevie or Sonya's mouths if it helps and we can edit their dialog if we think something slightly different would be better for the characters, but I doubt we'd have to change much.
Sonya is an electrical engineer so she knows about typical wattages and what sort of surge protection would be required, issues with recharging batteries or using them for unintended purposes (car batteries used for kitchen appliances, whatever), and so on. Or if she doesn't know it, she can figure it out.
Stevie knows rudimentary electronics and mechanics, and is the kind of guy to know how to program all the VCRs of the world, but can't program a computer.
They decided music is a priority for sanity and culture purposes, so they're on that. Unfortunately iPods have a habit of getting corrupted or screwed up sometimes, necessitating "Synching" with a computer. To that end, they'll need to power one of those at some point.
And more important than that, they're making as many power generation devices as they can muster, with parts scavenged from useless devices, cars, computers, whatever.
When you're done (or if you don't bother), go to the 6th floor or individual rooms. Don't take Ben too far into the evening because an event has been planned for it!
>>BEN
"Ooh, trade? Good idea! I didn't even think about that."
Stevie-
"Oh yeah... I mean, it's a real test of human nature. Are people gonna form reasonable little communities willing to work together? Then we can trade. Are they gonna be flipped out psychos? I guess we'll just have more juice than everyone else. Win-win."
Ben went out to hunt for appliances, and started out by gathering all the non-kitchen stuff, bringing it back to Sonya and Stevie. "That should keep them supplied for a while," he thought, as he then decided to take a detour to the mail boxes and the loading dock on the first floor. Had his packages arrived? He would prefer not to ask Bryce about it quite yet, and hopefully the slacker hadn't bothered to keep the door locked...
When he returned to his duties, Ben gathered all the kitchen appliances, and took them to the comm center for evaluation. Would Chantelle prefer this mixer or a charger? Well, maybe it'd be a bunch of mixers in exchange for one charger. Hard to say for sure. And hey, could he have a little snack while he was there? Great!
Chantelle-
"We'll hold onto these, thanks!" She took a small selection of kitchen gizmos. "Have a salmon cream cracker!"
The rest of the day, what little remained until evening, was spent taking apart the appliances and sorting all the components into several boxes and piles, during which Ben got to learn a bit about which components could be used for what. Sonya was of course amazingly talented, and wonderful in every way. And Stevie sure knew his stuff, though Ben frequently had trouble keeping up with the older man's jokes.
Stevie-
"So forgivin' me for racist stereotypin' a minute but it seems like that's all the jokes I know, uh, wait I can do this with somethin' else, let's say a rabbit a coyote and an ocelot walk into a bar...."
Ben had one concern though: His electric shaver was practically out of charge when he had finished shaving that morning, and he had never really learned how to use a razor properly.
; "Would it be possible to get a charger for my shaver before I grow a real neckbeard? Or should I just man up and learn how to use a razor?"
Sonya-
"Let me see the charger for... We can make it work. No problem!"
Ben-
"Great!"
>>GM
Ben and company worked hard, but amused themselves by playing music and having Christmas lights blink. It seemed like the most lively place in the building, just three people sitting in folding chairs around a cheap table, tinkering with the innards of man's creations.
Eventually, they went to the Comm Center to put completed generators in the supply center and relax for the evening. PROCEED TO 6th floor thread! Or Ben's apartment, if you prefer. It will be presently sans Jackson.
>>GM
Seth, Thierry, Davin, Alex & Doctor Victor met outside to begin their trip after extensive briefing from Marie about the building, potential entrances and exits, and more.
Patti, Abdul-Rahman, Peg & Lashonda were already beginning the fencing project. They'd found a roll of wire mesh in the building supplies, and were constructing gates which would be put up in front of the cars on one side and the dumpster on the other.
Abdul-Rahman- (to Seth)
"Are you certain this is safe?"
Seth-
"No. We need medicine, and we also need to get a lay of the land. Gotta take chances sometimes."
Abdul-Rahman-
"You should take a gun."
Seth glanced back to his group.
Seth-
"Do any of you know how to use a gun?"
Thierry looked mad dubious, and Davin shook his head. (Dr. V, Alex?)
Seth-
"I do. I'd rather not have to worry about having it with me though. Doctor, would you like to carry a gun?"
Abdul-Rahman-
"Why? If you know how to shoot a gun, why are you having reservations? Obviously you'd be more qualified than the doctor to use this weapon."
Seth-
"I don't have a holster and I'd rather not run with it tucked into my drawers, thank you. If the occasion should come up for me to use it, I may borrow it from the kind doctor."
Abdul-Rahman-
"It just seems like people are allowing emotions to get in the way of doing the most sensible or expedient course of action."
Seth-
"Uh huh... So, Doctor, what do you say?"
(INSERT HIS ANSWER HERE AND OR ANY OTHER GUN RELATED STUFFS)
Seth-
"So when we get out there, we're gonna go left on Harrison, right on 9th and it's just two blocks down. Dr. Victor, as you can probably tell, this is a fast group. Thierry's soccer, Davin's a runner, I was center field, what position were you, Alex?
"Anyway, I understand not everyone's gonna have the same abilities, so we need to be prepared to form two groups, a small fast group and a larger just slightly slower group. I say small group is me and Thierry. We stick together until we hit 9th, and barring any change of plans, Thierry and I jet straight down 9th and look for the way to get in. We'll look for you, just keep on 9th and we'll meet up again. Now, any questions or suggestions?"
Abdul-Rahman-
"I can't even listen to this..."
Seth-
"Good, because I wasn't talking to you.."
Davin-
"Does Marie have any idea who's still there? What they're like?"
Seth-
"She wasn't sure, but guessed that her coworkers would probably mostly be there still. She said they're a very capable bunch and would likely get the place pretty secure.
"The lead doctor is Doctor Franco, she said he's probably going to be in charge. He's strict but she thought he would be understanding. The rest are various researchers and doctors, and she thought they seemed nice for the most part.
They have security guards there through the night, and they are probably around still. They are not armed."
"Any other comments or questions? Otherwise, let's get on the road."
>>GM
Patti and company! Two men emerge from the building across the alley, by one of its emergency exits. At first they are excited and happy, then they get a disappointed look, then they clock the blocked alley exits and look a bit more comfortable. They are unarmed. The latin (or asian?) guy is clutching an iPhone.
Ivan (the iPhone haver)-
"Shit, we thought you were marines. Sorry for the surprise, ladies."
Ashley, you see these people!
Abdul-
"Sorry to disappoint, gentlemen. Indeed, you gave us a start."
>>ASHLEY ORIGINS HERE???
>>ASHLEY
Ash-
"Hello. Do you have a safehouse?..The world has gone crazy, my car is in the garage down here." He frowns at the correct direction, and then looks around, a flicker of thrill, and a dash of nervousness in his eyes. He pats his side where he would usually have his gun, keeping an eye out for danger.
He turns around and scans the others. He doesn't say it, but at least a few seem fit to fight. The rest...may need some help, maybe.
>>GM
Abdul-
"This building behind us is our 'safe' house, but safe is a relative term now. Nonetheless, we probably have more water than any place you will find, and a trained chef who has come up with a rationing scheme that can sustain our lives, if not our tastes."
Ivan-
"Hell yeah, bro. Hm. What're your names?" He asked everyone, but was looking at Patti - likely to her choosy and paranoid dismay.
Peg
"I'm Peg, this is LaShonda, Patti, and Abdul-Rahman."
Ivan-
"I'm Ivan and this is Ashley."
Peg-
"Like 'Gone With the Wind' ... Haha. Welcome, guys."
Abdul-
"Your appearance raises a concern in me - how secure is your building from the other street sides? We must know."
Ivan-
"We locked it up pretty good..."
Players feel free to respond to any part of the above, but if your response is meant to come before the end, make clear what you're responding to.
>>PATTI
Patti addressed the newcomers. "If you're fed and have some energy, you can help us with this fence. We've got a team out scavenging for medical supplies as we speak. If you need food or water, one of us can take you upstairs and show you the community center." She paused for a moment.
"I know this is going to sound silly, but apparently the undead aren't good liars, so we've devised a test to make sure you are still among the living."
To Ashley - "What high school did you graduate from?"
To Ivan - "What was your first car?"
After any responses - "No offense intended, gentlemen, but I think some of us would feel better if we double-checked your handiwork in securing the building. When we're done with this fence, some of us can go check it out."
>>ASHLEY
Ash-
"Garfield Highschool. And...who might you be? You can call me Ashley, if you would like."
He stared at the newcomer. She had a certain air of authority, and he had to admit, he kind of liked it. She was really somebody in this middle of nowhere. He spent a moment eyeing her. A little old but well put together, good command.. He faded back into reality and nodded.
"Of course, feel free, we secured the bottom level for the most part, made it impossible for those ghoulies to go in or out." He gestured towards the building aburptly, seeming unnaturally cool-headed for the end of the world. He certainly didn't feel it inside. He had no idea what was going on honestly.
"What do you need done?" He looked at the fence to see if it was, indeed any good and did indeed look like it would hold back hoards of diseased humans. He patted for his gun again reflexively, and then put his pipe down so he could better offer a hand to the others.
>>GM
Ivan-
"A Datsun something-or-other with an insect problem."
Ivan easily fell into helping people with the fence. Putting the fence in place drew zombies, but as Ivan and Ashley discovered in the cafe next door, once they were up, the zombies paid the alley even less attention than before.
Just before they went back into the building across the alley to check the security, they were a bit startled by a string tied to a tiny wrench being tossed from the roof. It stayed close to the building, so there was no risk of it hitting anyone. Sandy stood at the top of the line and waved, and Sandy came out of the stairwell to work on the string from the street level.
Sandy-
"The analog doorbell."
Lashonda-
"Ohhh..."
Ivan-
"You guys are on it. I was hating this building yesterday, but it had good neighbors."
Peg-
"Thanks!"
GM NOTE: If you want to RP among yourselves or do some creative writing about stuff that happens during the project, go ahead. I expect Ashley or Ivan to warn Patti (or whoever) before she goes into the Two Dozen Corpse Cafe, but it could still be fun for someone to write about.
When you're done go to the 6th floor or individual rooms. Ashley and Ivan should hang out in the general areas until someone can hook 'em up with a room. See you around!
PS- Don't take the characters too far into the evening, as events have been planned for it.
>>ASHLEY
"The rest of the building, and the surrounding area is extremely dangerous, I would use caution while exploring. Will this really keep them out? They seem more intelligent than something from those old movies I've seen." He grumbles, and seems not to have seen many recent movies. He shifts his footing and some stones found around. They were less interested than before. Strange, they had some fading semblance to humanity still, even in their deranged state. Some even looked human still, but there was something off... He wondered..if they could be cured, or were they truly gone. Did it matter? He wondered about his cat as he helped build the fence, and catches the wrench before it falls too far.
>>GM
"What makes you think they're smarter than the movie stiffs? Man, we got 'em in that hallway and they just kept coming. We get a blind up and they forget we exist in five minutes."
>>ASHLEY
"Because they can speak, it seems, I never thought guys with rotted brains would speak. For that matter, how are people affected by this...whatever it is that's happening." He looks over the wall and wonders about their fate. He puts a few more nails in the make-shift wall, and then sighs.
"Be careful if you are going to inspect our building, miss."
>>PATTI
"Haven't seen any talking zombies yet, but we've seen some demon-possessed folks that did. The ghosts we saw didn't speak, to my memory." To Ash - "I don't exactly plan on going alone." She looked pointedly at the men, then patted a suspicious lump on her hip.
>>GM
Ivan clocked her gesture and responded with appropriate respect. Ye shan't see him checkin' out the Patti again.
Ivan-
"OHkay... haha. Yeah, so the survey wasn't about talking zombies, it was about some kind of possessed weirdos. And ghosts? Man, it's unbelievable."
He walked to the other end of the alley to help someone with a thing. Abdul gestured for Patti to come to the middle and talk quietly, out of earshot of the new laborers.
Abdul-
"We should get some more specific ideas about who should carry firearms and when. I was just thinking I'd have felt more comfortable when those men emerged if I had been armed as well. I noticed Mr... Tyrone was armed as well as you. How many sidearms do you have?"
>>ASHLEY
Ash stares at Patti quietly, and then seems to nod. "I didn't know there was a difference...I guess, I thought the world hadn't all gone to hell yet. Demons? Ghosts? I thought they were all the same. Oh. I left mine at home, wish I hadn't now. I have some good memories." He picks up the pipe, and stares at her hip longingly. Patti was quite a woman.
"Are you a business-woman? What sort of person were you before the world wound down?" He asks Patti, brushing off his dirty, blood-spattered shirt. He knew he had a good arm for zombie-killing.
>>PATTI
To Ash - "Something like that. I was an administrator at Amazon the last seven years. How about you?" This line of conversation seemed beyond banal in the circumstance and it was annoying Patti, though she was good at not showing her annoyance. One of those skills you develop in the business world.
She caught Abdul-Rahman eyeing her and she excused herself. "Excuse me for a minute." She picked up one of the spools of wire they had been using to secure the fencing material and carried it over to the middle-eastern fellow. She should ask him where he's from some time; it seemed crappy to think of him in such a general way, even if it was only in her internal monologue. Nobody else was standing particularly close to the two of them. She handed the wire to Abdul-Rahman.
"What's the matter?"
Abdul-
"We should get some more specific ideas about who should carry firearms and when. I was just thinking I'd have felt more comfortable when those men emerged if I had been armed as well. I noticed Mr... Tyrone was armed as well as you. How many sidearms do you have?"
"Just four, counting the ones you've seen. And a couple of shotguns. We'll have to have a longer discussion about this later. Nothing personal, but this thing's turned into a democracy and I'm not going to make unilateral decisions about who can and cannot be carrying a firearm. We should have a sit down with Seth and his council when they get back. If they get back."
Abdul-Rahman-
"Surely." He smiled. "We'll be done with this soon and onto securing this next building. Thank you for your help. I'd somehow forgotten the question test. So foolish." He saw her returning to Ashley and went to help the others.
To Ash - "Sorry about that. Anyway, hmmm... what were we talking about?"
>>ASHLEY
Ash seemed to think that Patti's commanding presence was somewhat reassuring, even if she did not seem to have much of an interest in his conversation. It's alright, they shouldn't talk too much anyways. It pays to listen carefully to their surroundings.
He milled around and seemed ready with his section of piping, he seemed to think this was secure enough to allow the others to leave unattended. He had a systematic way of examining new places, and was very cautious moving around corners, rather than simply being generally cautious, it was strange.
To Abdul: "You don't have to come with us if you feel unsafe. Your safety is always a priority since there are so few of us left." He has a sudden, very serious expression and puts his remaining hand in his pocket.
To Patti: "Nothing of importance. I'd be glad to lend a hand if you're going back to our cafe, as much as I'd like to meet the others. There are others, aren't there?" It certainly seemed like it. He finished working on the fence, at least to his untrained satisfaction, and then brushed his hands off on his clothes.
>>GM
Abdul-Rahman-
"Of course I am not afraid. I have military training and have lived through this madness with my wits intact. I just believe we should be methodical in any undertaking where time permits... You can join us as we go back in there soon."
>>ASHLEY
Ash seemed unsure of his own handiwork when he was finished, and was more than happy to reinforce it. He seemed unsure if he should ask for any of the goods, and yet he had not eaten for many hours.
To Patti: " ...I...could use some food. I have money. " As if money mattered in this world, if anything food should be worth its weight in gold.
To Abdul: "You are a military man?" He looks him over, and seems to have a new respect for him.
Abdul-
For a few years. You have some relevant experience as well?
>>PATTI
Patti laughed at Ash's request. "Yeah, help yourself. Try to take it easy, so other people can have some. There will be a larger, proper meal later. Nobody here's going to deny you food, especially if you're helping with the work. Ivan, you should help yourself too."
The fence workers were a little startled when the folks returned from their pizza run, but they helped them unload the Subaru as quickly as possible. As the wine started coming, Patti recognized that the selection was actually pretty darned good and she looked forward to having some. A little buzz in this situation sounded pretty good, if a little foolhardy.
Once the adjacent building was secured, Patti and the others gathered and organized the unused fencing supplies in to the parking garage, then made their way up to the community center.
HERE!!!
>>GM
Derek, Kenny, and Micah clambered out of the alley over the hoods and roofs of the car-side barricade, and its new fence. They hit the street, already having to engage in violence.Derek used an aluminum bat to murder the nearest zombies. They looked to Micah like they used to be software types, and therefore the scene was a bit reminiscent of jocks pounding nerds in high school - only this time to death.Kenny helped him, using a table-leg club. It made Micah's streetside landing the safest of the three.
Derek-
"Stop trying to eat me, you dead dumbfucks!"
Kenny-
"Don't take it personally dude. Let's get a move on!"
The guys started jogging, staying close to buildings to reduce visibility, and quickly killing anything that got between them and the Serious Pie...
The street was littered with items left forgotten in the panic of two nights ago, it was hard to believe it had really only been that long. It wasn't looking very fucking hopeful for the human race at this point. Torn advertisements on walls mocked the scene bellow with their cheesy smiles and now meaningless messages. The zombies were a parody of their former humanity, still clinging to vestiges of their past lives.
Micah was starting to wish he'd been born fifty or so years earlier. If that kid really started this then that made him a worse shitbag than Hitler. Micah seemed to be the only one who doubted that the kid did it though, he said he did but that didn't make it so.
His fellow food hunters were okay, Derek was clearly a self-involved dick but every group had at least one. He jogged after the others attempting to keep them between him and the zombies. One thing he could say, they both handled the zombies well. Derek, a little too much. He reminded Micah of the bullies he'd known at high school.
One zombie, a middle aged man with a shard of glass poking through his business shirt and shattered glasses still hanging off his nose took a lazy swipe at the man. Derek responded by beating the zombie to a bloody pulp, yelling profanities at the zombie's nerve. Fair enough, clearly Derek's IQ level was about the same level. Someone's mommy and daddy didn't pay him enough attention as a child.
Micah relaxed slightly as they got closer to the targeted corner. He was hoping for some red wine or vodka but raiders couldn't be choosers.
>>GM
Derek-
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, and fuckin' DIE, motherfucker!"
Kenny-
"Stop wasting time, dude! We're there!"
"Seriously mate, that zombie has reached a whole new level of fucking dead! Let's get on with it!"
Micah was beginning to pity the damn things. He had been landed with fucking Beavis and Butthead. Kenny was now attempting to ride a statue of pink pig. The paint was chipped and the pig had an odd look on his face. The smile was almost ironic, as if it had predicted the current state of things all along. Kenny ended up slipping awkwardly off but landed on his feet.
"Why do you guys call pizza a 'pie'? Makes no fucking sense. Does this place even sell actual meat pies?"
Kenny-
"I don't know about the pie thing either, but it has somethin' to do with gettin' hit in the face with a moon. Or amore or somethin'."
The doors were unlocked. The staff must have tried to make a run for it.
They were able to get inside the heavy wooden door and lock it behind them with a simple lever.
"Serious Pie: A Tom Douglas Restaurant!"
For fun-- the website of this restaurant: seriouspiewestlake.com/ It's actually pretty delicious
Inside was nearly pitch black, only the faintest light coming from the shaded windows on the front side, the back of the restaurant obviously windowless.
Kenny-
"Shit...." he fumbled around through his pockets, "Didn't bring a flashlight..."
Derek-
"Pft, that's because I am the brains of this fuckin' operation. Pre-law?"
He waved a flashlight around.
Kenny-
"It was the middle of the day! Whatever..."
When they finally made it into the place and locked the door, it was pitch black.
Derek must of been granted a couple of brain cells as he'd brought a torch. Micah wished he'd thought that far ahead. Pre-law? Micah was shocked.
"I didn't know it took a pre-law degree to remember to bring a torch."He grinned.
Derek-
"Evidently not having one helps you forget it."
A small stand read ' serious biscuit' but it didn't sound like actual biscuits. Instead it had a menu written in chalk. Wood-fired eggs, fancy toppings like artisan truffle cheese and local cherry tomatoes... The room smelled a bit of spoiled eggs. Didn't they call them cookies in America? The eggy smell of the place made him feel slightly ill. It looked like one of those places that claimed gourmet, but only delivered pathetically small serves of the actual gourmet bits of the meal.
"Wow. How serious is their biscuit? Let's hope it's pretty fucking serious."
Kenny-
"Haha. You're a funny dude, like that Bryce."
To their right, they saw their mecca-- "SOUL WINE". A fully stocked bar, and row upon row of fine wines.
Kenny-
"Goddamn! We gotta get a cart and clean this place out! Booze forever!"
Derek-
"Chill out, we gotta make sure there's nothing in here, idiot."
Micah grinned when he spotted the wine bar, jackpot! Now it was matter of getting it all back to 403. He moved with the other two upstairs, into the dark and dingy part of the restaurant. Micah had the creeps, this felt exactly like walking into a trap. His heart began beating a little faster as they made their way in. He began imagining countless zombie filled encounters, taking his heart along for the ride. The sound of their feet on the floorboards didn't help, it was beginning to feel like some corny 80's horror film. Any minute now...
Wooden stairs lead up, they walked carefully, Derek leading with the flashlight, but the room otherwise pitch dark. They came upon the railing, and entered a lounge with a low ceiling, and dark rustic wood paneling. A sign detailed Wednesday's pizza of the day featuring house pancetta and Greek olives.
They crept around the long wooden tables and benches, shining the beam around and trying to listen over the creak of their feet on the floor.
SGRARRGH!
Micah yelped and almost fell backwards into a nearby table. Derek was standing on the hand of a pale woman, trapped by a fallen table. There was no chance she was among the living, blood drenched her blonde hair and bruises like grotesque sleeves marked her arms. Her pale face and eyes seemed almost luminescent in the harsh glare of Kenny's torch. Micah wondered what went on inside a zombie's head, where there any thoughts or just raw emotions or nerves like a cockroach.
Something shrieked, and Derek practically dropped the flashlight. Kenny wrested it from his hands and shined it around wildly, until they saw the movement on the floor. Derek had his foot on a pale white hand, that was attached to a thrashing figure.
A ghastly white woman was somehow wedged under the wooden bench, dark purple bruising covering her arms and her pale hair matted with blood. She lashed her arms out at Derek until he hopped away, and then she slumped to the floor, almost as though she'd just wanted to be left in peace. She was silent.
Kenny-
"Fuckin' a man!"
He shined the flashlight in her eyes, and stood above her, careful to not be quite within arm's reach.
Kenny-
"You're a zombie, right toots?"
The woman stared blankly into the flashlight and as she lifted her head, a black string of blood oozed from her pale lips. She seemed to make no special reaction to his words other than a vague shuddering.
"Toots? You must be a whizz with the ladies Kenny. Should we put her out of her misery? Who wants to be a fucking zombie?"
The shuddering was freaking Micah out, oh god he hoped she was just a fucking zombie.
(((((((((((((HEEEERRRE))))))))))))))))))
Kenny-
"Hell, man, I just wanted to be sure." He looked back at Derek. "You got this man?"
Derek had a weird little shudder, then advanced with long strides.
Derek-
"Outta the way, wuss!"
He bashed the zombie sickeningly.
Kenny walked over to Micah, obscuring the Aussie's view of the brutality.
Kenny-
"Hey, so... I didn't know about the wine. That's a hot score, huh? I wonder if we can find a motorized palette jack and move a bunch at once... Or back a car up to the front..."
INDEA, Write whatever you'd like about how they go about doing this, put words in anyone's mouth if you feel you need to or just leave a space for an edited response (which you can then edit a re-response into), whatever etc. Describe the whole venture as much or as little as you'd like, I'll fill in the blanks, and then onward!
>>MICAH
Micah was grateful when his view of the carnage was obscured.
"Ugh, your friend is a fucking psychopath, remind me not to get pre-sued. Considering Derek is only pre-law, I think a car might be a safer option. Can either of you hotwire a car though?"
"Haha pre-sued, funny. No problem dude. You guys just get the booze and shit ready!"
Kenny handed the torch over to Micah, before heading back down the stairs and back outside to 'acquire' a vehicle. Which left him alone in the dark with Derek, fantastic. Micah wondered how the guy dealt with spiders. There didn't seem to be any sign of more undead, surely the noise would have alerted them if there were.
"So ah Derek, are you finished venting your anger at your fucking mother, or should I go check out the foodstuffs on my own?"
“Fuck that. I don't think your qualified to make that statement jackass. Let's get it over with. I don't trust you, I know where you come from.”
Micah shrugged, there was no point trying to talk fucking sense to the man. They made their way past the near decapitated corpse, and towards the back of the restaurant and the kitchen. The smell of rotted eggs grew stronger as they got closer, Micah wished he had a hand free to cover his nose and mouth up.He tried not to let his hand shake, he didn't want to show his cowardice in front of this paranoid freak. The shadows cast by the torch almost made Micah jump a couple of times, and he hoped the bigger man wouldn't notice.
The kitchen was set up like your average Italian restaurant, the benches were a kind of grey granite texture on top of the stainless steel. When Micah lifted the torch up, it revealed a kind of mosaic covering the front of the steel-box fans. The mosaic was made up of little tiles of green and yellow forming a diamond pattern across the middle. In the centre of the room were a series of ovens, all with pots still resting on the top, in all different states of the cooking process. A large Pizza oven sat in the middle behind that.
Micah and Derek made their way to the back of the kitchen. It was all going relatively smoothly until Micah stepped on something soft and squishy.
Micah squawked at it, only to find he had stood on a small rat that scurried quickly away hissing.
“Wuss.”
When the reached the larder, the door was still closed but thankfully unlocked. Micah had thought it would be their best bet, he had no idea what Chantelle wanted, but cold and cured meats would last longer. Inside were a few shelves of food like pickles, fetta, canned pineapple, nuts and olives. A few large hunks of cured meat hung in a corner, with a large ham wrapped in a cloth sack. Bags of flour were stacked up along the other side.
“How much can you carry? I think we should take some of those foods like the olives from the shelves, the cured meat and ham, along with a bag of flour.”
(I'm going to guess aprox 20kg (44pds) which is the amount they can do at airports with a bit of effort. Derek would be a reasonably buff guy and would probably lift more than he should anyways.)
“I am not just the brains of this operation, I'm also the fuckin' brawn. I'll take whatever you can't handle.”
“No worries. I'll grab some of the jars and shit, if you take the ham and a few bags of flour.”
Micah found an empty old potato sack and began filling it with the meat, jars and cans of food, anything long-lasting in particular went into the sack. When it was beginning to get heavy, Micah stopped and tied the top of the sack as much as he could.(Micah is carrying about 12kg of stuff)
He hefted it into his arms puffing, and held awkwardly on to the torch and knife underneath. The trip back though the kitchen was uneventful, apart from the occasional expletive when Micah hit himself against a dozen benches. Derek had little problem carrying his load, or at least he wasn't showing it.
When they arrived at the front of the restaurant, Kenny with a once white four-wheel subaru waited patiently out front, the engine running. A few zombies were banging uselessly on the sides, but apart from that it seemed to have attracted little attention. A few zombies had obviously fallen pray to it's wheels, and stream of body parts and innards littered the road behind it. Derek put his load down, and began helping Kenny with bashing the zombies over the head. Splashes of red soon littered the vehicle and the men. Micah thought he saw Derek begin to shake once, but it might have been his imagination.
He realised too late that he probably should have given them a hand. They loaded the vehicle with the food and proceeded then to 'Soul wines' to pick up the booze.
“If there is any champagne, we should save it for Nat. It's his fucking birthday today after all.”
“Good thinking man. You mean the blonde kid right?”
They loaded up the back of the car with as much booze as was physically possible. Derek kept watch over the car, violently bashing any zombie that dared to get too close. One overweight teenager with a missing eye seemed to cop a particular bout of rage when it almost knocked his cap off.
“You FUCKIN' little fuckin' punk. Do you know what this cap is worth, don't you DUMBFUCK??”
Once they had accomplished that, they went up and got a few more bags of flour and cans before heading back towards the 403 building. The afternoon was setting in, and Micah's stomach grumbled slightly at him as they hopped inside the packed vehicle. Derek of course had called shotgun, and Micah was left squished in the back seat, next to the bottles of wine and flour bags. The ride back was quick, and they were soon unloading the vehicle, and passing bottles and bags of flour over the fence and stack of cars, to those waiting behind it.
>>GM
GM NOTE: Tremendous! Mission accomplished! The barricade is a bit of an issue. I'll say the car is a hatchback, and backed into place it's not too hard to unload it into the "hall of cars" and beyond.
The moving had proven far too noisy and laborious. The men were horrified by the growing knot of undead around the alley as they unloaded.
Kenny-
"We need a distraction! Like a fast runner to hop over this shit and draw some of them away! Why do I have a feeling I'm gonna have to do it?
Man, you'd have to be one of those parkour dudes to get outta this mess. I'll climb over the dumpster at the other end of the alley and hit 'em from the side..."
>>MICAH
(I see what you did there hahaha (subtle ;D). I flipped for Micah's self preservation over guilt at not actually helping fight at all. His flight instincts won out I'm afraid)
"Uh yeah...You would, wouldn't you... Good luck mate, we'll finish unloading as quickly as possible. Give em' hell."
Micah grabbed as much as he could physically hold and began heading towards the back door trying to avoid becoming an undead snack. If a Zombie comes too close he will attempt to stab it in the skull.
>>GM
Kenny-
"Later bro!"
Kenny took off like a shot. Micah wasn't able to get toward the back door, obliged by the awkward jam to stay put with Derek in the car. They looked out at the zombies in disgust. They couldn't open the hatch safely just yet.
The bastards cracked the window on Derek's side a bit, but didn't seem able to do much more just yet. Suddenly, they seemed distracted!
In a process that took about twenty nerve-wracking minutes and a lot of cussing, the men got the car unloaded into the alley. Once in the alley, it was safe from zombies because the work on securing the alley was complete by this time.
The exhausted troops rallied some help carrying stuff to the 6th floor. (Throw any more details on this you want, then await the evening's festivities!)
>>MICAH
Micah couldn't have been a hero even if he wanted to, the door seemed to be jammed shut and was refusing to open. Kenny shot out of the car without another word. It took the zombies a few minutes to react, for a agonising minute it seemed like their were going to stay focused on the car. Micah hoped the guy didn't fall off and really create a disctraction for the zombies. Were the zombies even hungry for human flesh? Now that he thought about it, their were violent but none had actually tried to eat anyone's brains or flesh.
A worrying crack was being created on Derek's window and Micah was freaking out slightly. The zombie's nose was pressed against the glass like a kid at a milk bar and it banged at the window with what looked to be an beaten up orange umbrella. Another was staring at Micah through the window like one would look at a stuffed turkey at christmas.
Suddenly they took off, leaving him and Derek safe again in the car. Micah clambered carefully over the food to the boot and waited impatiently for Derek to open up.
Once freed from the subaru, Micah grabbed the potato sack of food as well as a bottle of wine. He headed through the car maze, swearing at the difficulty created by his load. It took them a full twenty minutes to get everything into the comm centre. Some of the others thankfully gave them hand and soon Micah was slumped in a chair, drinking a grateful glass of juice and biting into a salmon cream cracker. He had been practically useless on the journey, but none of the others had to know. Derek had given him a couple of dirty looks but hadn't said anything. Kenny hadn't become zombie food and joined them in the comm centre a few minutes later.
>>GM
As people finished their day's activities, some returned to their rooms, but many returned to the comm center. Chantelle and a few others were re-decorating, hanging sheets in peculiar ways and setting up various means of lighting and other things. Food had been prepared in advance - nothing that needed to be served warm was out just yet, but maybe later.
Kenny smelled salty like the ocean from running around, and was buzzing from the lingering effect of mortal terror. He sat near Micah, laughing and saying weird shit.
Derek relieved crazy hand Luke from guarding the supply center and brooded there with a water bottle in his hand. Susie would say sympathetic things to him when taking breaks from her own labors.
Tyrone was teaching Bryce and Kaito how to play dominos.
These three finished their business at the supply center, grabbed some water, and sat in some nice chairs.
>>PATTI
The fence workers were a little startled when the folks returned from their pizza run, but they helped them unload the Subaru as quickly as possible. As the wine started coming, Patti recognized that the selection was actually pretty darned good and she looked forward to having some. A little buzz in this situation sounded pretty good, if a little foolhardy.
Once the adjacent building was secured, Patti and the others gathered and organized the unused fencing supplies in to the parking garage, then made their way up to the community center.
Before the party got kicked off proper, Patti had an idea for a present that was neither too personal nor too presumptuous. She went down to the third floor where she was fairly certain she had seen it. It was so late last night that she hadn't thought to take it for herself, but today it would serve a more selfless purpose.
>>PARTAY BEGINS HERE!!!
>>GM ADD IN SCENE DESCRIPTIONS
>>GM — PATTI’S ROOM
Lashonda-
"This might be fiddling while Rome burns, but that Aussie kid knocked off a liquor store, and I'm about to get fucked up."
Peg-
"Oh you kids. *sigh* I guess I've got a good reason to get fucked up too."
Lashonda-
"Hehehe, that was almost cute."
Peg-
"Only almost?"
Lashonda-
"OK, it was cute, but you're not my type."
Peg-
"Lashonda...?!"
Peg folded her arms and looked at Lashonda.
Lashonda-
"Yeah. Whatever. It's just a coincidence. It's the LGBT room... and whatever Patti is."
>>GM — MARIE’S ROOM
Zoe-
"SORRY!"
Marie-
"I'm sorry... that board games are really not my thing."
Zoe-
"What do you want to do then? Maybe I could put you in a wheelie chair and wheel you around the party."
Marie-
(smiles) "Aw, that's sweet of you. I don't think we have a wheelie chair though."
Zoe-
"Hm, yeah maybe our kitchen chairs don't move enough. Want me to get you a grownup?"
Marie-
"No no, I'll play games with you, but maybe not Sorry. What is this stuff even supposed to be? It's too abstract. Do we have Monopoly?"
Zoe-
"Monopoly's too hard! Maybe... Mouse trap?"
Marie-
"Hm, I don't know... too many moving parts. Isn't that game a choking hazard?"
Zoe-
(raises an eyebrow) "Maybe if you're a baby... Do you think I would try to eat it?"
Marie-
"Maybe I would..."
Kerry-
"What a doll." Kerry sat on a moderately comfortable chair and watched the two while sipping wine.
Marie-
Looked to Kerry "She's a board game shark. I'm going to lose my shirt."
Zoe-
*GASP* "Then you'd be naked!"
Ivan-
"Haha. Uh, weird conversation?" He looked at Marie "I heard this was the office..."
Marie-
"In a sense, yes. You're new and need a room?"
Ivan-
"Yes ma'am."
Marie-
"I'll make sure you've got a place to sleep tonight. Consider having a roommate, as protection against ghosts."
Ivan-
"Hey, are you pina? If you don't mind..."
Marie-
"Sansei. Japanese American."
Ivan-
"Cool."
Ivan-
"Well, I better hit the bar before it turns into a pumpkin. It's been swell."
Zoe-
"I want a pumpkin!"
>>GM - SANDY & SONYA’S ROOM
Sandy-
"I'm sure this will not be your size, but you HAVE to try on these clothes I found."
Sonya-
"Oh? Let me see."
She produced a fu-fu sundress with frilly frilly forever everything.
Sonya-
"Haha! Looks like for a little girl."
Sandy-
"I just think it would be cute! Humor me."
Sonya-
"Hm, maybe I can wear as a shirt."
Sonya went in the other room to try on the silly dress. Davin poked his head in the door. He was wearing a rather dapper suit, a perk of being a former resident.
Davin-
"Oh hi there Sandy. I'm still getting a lay of the land, not sure who's staying where yet."
Sandy-
"Oh Davin, that's really funny that your cat's named Sandy. Do you think I look like a cat?"
Davin-
"It's pretty funny to call a human that, yes, ha..."
He came in and stood near the cushions, feeling a bit silly to sit on the floor, folding his arms behind his back in an attempt to look casual.
Davin-
"--Do you look like a cat? Hm... maybe a little. Maybe if a cat had a very nice wig on, haha... Um, anyway..."
She smiled.
Sandy-
"So what kind of madness did you guys get up to today? I heard you guys had to go out to ZombieTown."
Davin-
"No joke. Went out to the Medical Research center down the road, picked up that new doctor. It was a bit nerve-wracking but no one got hurt and it wasn't as hard as I'd have thought it would be."
Sandy-
"Wow. So I guess it isn't exactly wall to wall zombies out there. Lot of openings you can run through?"
Davin-
"Yeah, there's some places where it gets thick, but you just avoid the crowds and move fast. Especially if you're not going far, it could be a lot worse. So what did you do today?"
Sandy-
"Oh Sarah and I had a funny idea. We made a sort of doorbell to the roof. Someone on the ground level could pull a string and it'll clank a bunch of cans on the roof. That way someone can radio below for someone to open the door. We haven't tested it yet, but it's up."
Davin nodded.
Davin-
"Wow, every little thing is being thought of. I'm sure more will come up though. But still... it's almost starting to feel like we could live in this place. Which is funny for me, because I already did."
Sonya peeked her head out of the bathroom.
Sonya-
"Help please... Can't button on back part..."
"
face.
- 
"
