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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 26, 2009 22:38:15 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
Again he laughed and she tried to find his outline in the dark. Her eyes traced over the tall grass, the rustle of it against the separate but equally soothing rustle of trees a bit further away. she found the canteen that she’d set aside before and a bit further along she saw where his body started, her gaze traveling over his arm to connect to his torso and to his face. His smile was lost to the dark but she could feel it when he laughed and when he spoke. She was the opposite in her delivery. The words that she spoke in her soft voice, a voice that was still very American opposed to everyone else’s accent, were colorless as her expression. They offered nothing that couldn’t be seen, nothing more than a direct question or statement of observation. Becky couldn’t understand how he was so… relaxed. She had known him for a total of less than two hours and she could tell that he was at ease most of the time. He had tensed at her arrival to his camp but that was quickly done away with.
Becky tried to put herself in his place and decipher what she would have done. She first of all wouldn’t have built a fire somewhere where it would be seen by other people. She’d have chosen a secluded spot, maybe in a hollow tree that she knew of or in a hole that she could dig out easily with the heel and toe of one of her boots. Ancel was nothing like her, in more ways than one. His smile and his laugh were only two things in the long list.
Becky lifted herself up some so that she was sitting again and looked down her skinny legs at her boots still on her feet. They were like an extension of her legs and she often forgot that they were on. But with the thought of scraping out a firepit with a boot, she thought that this once she could take them off and enjoy the feeling of her feet not having to suffocate. She untied them one at a time and pulled them off, setting them next to the canteen. The cool night felt very good against her toes as she wiggled them, one toe sticking out of a hole in her sock. She noted it, remembering the store where she had gotten the last pair. Pulling her hood down over her forehead, Becky laid back down, bending her knee at an angle, still wiggling her toes from time to time.
His little explanation was more than she’d expected and she took it in the sections that he gave her, answering more of a question than she had asked initially. Becky thought now more than before that he was a little crazy but he also said that he wasn’t going to hurt her. It did little to make her relax; the words of a crazy man only bordered slightly on the actual truth. He could have been lying without knowing what he was even saying. What she trusted was his idea of morals, that he was living off of an idea other than just that of survival. That was what Becky was living on. Surviving was all that mattered; there were no dreams or ambitions to try to reach. She didn’t want a family or happiness; all she wanted was to keep living. Death scared her, though she could admit that it might have been so much better and easier than going through this hell. Living was the hard part, she used to hear, but death was easy.
She sighed softly and closed her eyes, content with what he said, content that staying with him the night couldn’t be any worse than staying somewhere alone. He said that he would protect her and he had a gun. And apparently he was good with his weapon or he would have been dead by now.
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Post by ancel on Sept 26, 2009 22:57:13 GMT -5
The girl had seemed content with the conversation, and apparently she had decided to stay there. He heard her sigh and relax on the ground. He smiled to himself. Now he had at least one relation in this bleak world. He turned over onto his stomach and looked at the dark red coals, listening to the sounds of the night. Suddenly, a distant sound awakened his senses. It wasn't Becky. It came from the field, near the treeline. It was a crack of a branch, and he heard a fall. His eyes narrowed.
He closed his eyes to enhance his other senses. He had practiced doing this many times. He felt around for Kameo, and loaded it as quietly as possible. He hit the safety catch. "damn," he heard a whisper say in the distance. He did some calculations in his head, based on echo strength, with the knowledge of his surroundings. He cocked the gun, and shot it into the dark night. "FUCK!" came a shout from where he shot. He let out a breath, and ran over to the spot where he heard the sound come from. "Who the fuck are you?!" he asked forcefully to the man. From the starlight, he could tell the man had been shot in the stomach. He didn't have long to live, whatever he told Ancel. "Nice... shot..." the man said, coughing up blood as he laughed. "I was spying on you fuckers. Haha. Just about to cut your thr--"
With that, Ancel stabbed him through the chest with Kameo's blade for good measure, wiped it off on the long grass, and walked back to the campfire. "Sorry about that," he said to the girl. Those actions may have been frightening, but they were definitely necessary for survival.
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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 26, 2009 23:20:56 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
Sleep was hard to come by sometimes. She had no watch and no way of knowing how late it was getting until the sun started to come up on the other side of town over the buildings again. Some days she walked ten miles around the city, wandering around without stopping except once or twice to find something to eat or a bottle of water that had remained untouched; those nights she found sleep rather quickly, her body and her eyes worn out after the exercise. But other days she heard a scream in the dark, a woman or a man crying out miles away where her eyes couldn’t follow. There could be the loud pang of a gun going off or multiple rounds and her eyes would snap open, wide and wondering. How close were they now? Would they find her? Would they kill her too and take when they wanted from her? All of those questions ran through her every time that she heard a shot close by; her heart kicked into high gear and she could have run flat-out for a mile before stopping, her hands shaking at the ends of her arms.
Tonight though, the added company of Ancel and his confidence let her shut her eyes, let her start to drift off into a semi-peaceful state. She listened to the trees whistling with the wind, heard the crickets in the grass and a frog somewhere jumping into the stream, the water caressing the rocks. It was a rhythm that she liked, lulling her into an unconscious state. Becky turned onto her side and rested one arm under her cheek, taking in the scent of the earth under her, heavy and good. It was a better smell than that of the streets and their corpses and old blood and rust. She was so close to being asleep…
Her eyes snapped open when she heard him move and she watched his body rise from the ground, reaching for his gun. She lifted her head off of the ground and heard her heart pounding in her ears, a slight panic coursing through her at the sight of the weapon raised again, even if he was on her side. She didn’t like guns and she never would. Becky swallowed, trying to swallow her hammering heart in her throat, and looked in the direction he was facing as she heard his bullet make an impact with something else. She wouldn’t have heard anyone approaching; she didn’t hear what he must have. He could have just saved her life with his shot.
She stood up; the adrenaline going through her after his shot made her body dance while she was still so she just needed a reason to stand up to let some of it escape through any action. She didn’t follow him as he walked away, only hugged her arms around her stomach. The bones were poking out in a few places, her ribs very tangible under her pale skin. God, she had gotten so thin lately. She was rocking back and forth on her feet as she waited for him to come back, the seconds dragging as she suddenly felt very alone. Becky breathed a soft sigh when he came back and apologized. “Are you okay?” she asked him. It had happened so quickly and he had been ready for it. Maybe it would do her better to stay with him than to be on her own.
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Post by ancel on Sept 26, 2009 23:38:45 GMT -5
Ancel stopped next to her. "Yes, I'm... quite alright. I'm always disturbed a bit after... that. But you know it's kill or be killed." Ancel laughed a bit. He felt his laugh needed explanation. "Sorry, it's just that phrase is very appropriate. For this moment." He sighed, looking up towards the stars. "He's near the treeline. I'm going to bury him... you go to sleep... Please... we can talk more tomorrow, and get out of here."
Ancel walked away from the fading embers over to where the man lay dead, and picked him up. He was already beginning to smell. He didn't weigh too much... probably emaciated from hunger pains. Ancel walked into the trees, and broke off a thick stick Carrying the whole load with him into the field, he dug a shallow area in the soft ground with the branches. He gently placed the corpse into it, and felt around the hole. He barely fit underground. Ancel shifted the displaced earth to cover up the body, and drove the stick into the ground as a grave marker. He knelt at the gravesite for a short time, letting his remorse go, and slowly walked back to the camp, considerably more somber.
He quietly laid down on the ground next to where he remembered Becky being, and silently cried himself to sleep as the last embers of the fire died out.
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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 27, 2009 0:05:19 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
Her eyelids were heavy and they agreed with him when he told her to go to sleep and let him take care of it. She didn’t know how easy sleep would come to her after that sudden realism thrust into their somewhat peaceful night. She was close to it before but now that smoldering gunshot was going to ring in her ears; she would have to wait for her heart to calm to a normal pace again, to be able to swallow her heart down to its normal position. Her hands felt as if they were trembling slightly, like the gun had gone off right next to her ear. Two years and she still wasn’t completely comfortable with that sound ringing in her ears, in her mind. The sound was too unnatural, too fake and powerful; to her ears, it was nails on a chalkboard or worse, making her feel powerless, like a small quivering animal in the clutches of something huge and beastly.
She stood on the spot as he walked off and it wasn’t until after he was out of her sight that she nodded to herself and sat back down on the ground, feeling the imprint of where she had been sitting before she stood up all of a sudden. She ran her hands through her hair and closed her eyes again. But, as she figured, sleep was too far away and she would have to let it come to her instead of reaching for it desperately. Despite her desire to sleep like he told her to do, her hearing strained to know where he was and what he was doing. It was so dark, only lit by the last few embers in the fire under the mangled blackened branches and the bright stars overhead. What id someone else found him while he was by himself, caught him off-guard and hurt him? They would surely find her and hurt her as well. She tried to shake her head of these thoughts but her mind always went to the worst options first. Becky wasn’t an optimist; she was quite the opposite and believed that the worse things would definitely be the ones to happen.
His footfalls echoed dully in her mind. She tossed from one position to the next, her arms wrapped protectively around her thin body, finding as much warmth as her jacket would allow, her legs curled up close to her chest. The minutes went by as she counted them to herself, one and then another, and another after that… She realized that she was waiting for him to come back before she would let herself fall asleep, wanting to be sure that nothing had happened to him in the dangerous mask of darkness. He had protected her with no reason to do so; she felt it would be a shame to leave him with nothing in return, though she had little to offer him as a token of appreciation. Anything she gave him would have been stolen from a store. It wouldn’t be very heartfelt. Becky wasn’t a sensitive person anyway.
He came back and her face relaxed, her body following. Sleep was easy after that, losing herself in the sounds of the water and the trees and the grass. She could hear him after he lay back down on the ground, his quiet breathing in the night. Becky fell asleep with her cheek pressed against her hand, her legs curled up to her stomach. There were no dreams, no nightmares. If there were, Becky didn’t remember them in the morning and she wouldn’t have wanted to either way. Waking up without an injury was nice enough.
Becky squinted against the rising sunlight the following morning and sat up, her hood falling back over her messy hair. She looked around, yawning, and the bits and pieces of the previous night came back to her. She saw that Ancel was still sleeping and she could see why; the sun had only just come up, the dew still clinging to every bit of grass around them. Becky stood and stretched her arms over her head, shivering as she did. Grabbing the canteen from the ground, she walked quietly away from where he was sleeping and found her way to the water’s edge, drinking the remains of the canteen as she walked. She rinsed her mouth out with the last of the water and refilled it, setting it aside as she knelt down, splashing some onto her face and through her stringy hair. Becky so missed being able to shower with steaming hot water; it was one of those little things that came to mind frequently.
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Post by ancel on Sept 27, 2009 13:03:53 GMT -5
Ancel woke up not long after the girl. His eyes slowly cracked open, the sun rising in the east. He looked around, over at the pile of dead coals. He looked around, feeling the dew that had settled on the grass near him and grabbing a clump of grass in his hands. His mouth was dry, and he searched for his canteen. Gone. He assumed the girl wouldn't have left after the experience last night, so he looked over at the river. There she was, splashing her face in the water. She looked even better in the light... she had a boyish figure, but all the curves of a woman. Ancel shook his head. He'd have to protect her, and not expect anything out of it.
He walked down towards the river and the girl. "Becky! That's... short for Rebecca, isn't it. Is it alright if I call you that?" he asked in a raspy voice, smiling as he walked a few more feet and ended up next to her. He took the canteen and downed almost all of it. He breathed in the air. "Ah, that's good."
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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 27, 2009 21:20:13 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
The water that she splashed against her face woke her up more and she opened her eyes to look up at the clear blue sky, a sky that mimicked that of the day before. A sky like that didn’t belong to a place like this. It should have been with a park somewhere far away, somewhere with green trees full of leaves swaying happily in the breeze. There should have been a playground somewhere with children running around and laughing, like a movie where everything was perfect and happy and nothing else mattered. In movies, the evil could be taken out of the world even if it did collapse in on itself. The characters wouldn’t know; they could simply keep on going with their two-dimensional lives. Ignorance was bliss that way, wasn’t it? Becky blinked and looked back down at the shallow pool of water, shaking her head of those ridiculous thoughts.
She unzipped her jacket and put it down next to her feet. She saw that she wasn’t wearing her shoes and then she recalled that she had taken them off the night before. Wiggling her toes once more, she squatted down at the water’s edge, taking some of the water in her hands and sipping most of it before it could trickle down between her fingers. Alone, Becky gave some thought to his proposition the night before. That didn’t sound like the right word to her but Becky had never been very good with words. Words and reading and writing, all of those things from school had never been her forte, not in the slightest. She was an idiot in that way, never making it farther than high school, barely getting through half of her high school career when she had to move to a different continent. She had yet to be put back into school in Leeds when the virus started to change things. Becky had been glad of it at the time, not having to adjust to another lifestyle where there were new people to torment her because of her appearance and her demeanor. It seemed like a bit of a mockery looking back on it.
Becky wasn’t sure what she would answer if he asked her about it again. She liked to be on her own, she liked it very much and it suited her. But he was a strong person, physically and otherwise, and he was offering to keep her safe. It was the same trust issue that kept her from just saying yes and going along with him. How did she know that she could trust him? He had killed a raider who probably would have murdered her if he had had the chance but that was nothing. That was merely coincidental.
She turned around when she heard him coming up next to her. She looked up at him and brushed her hair behind her ears; some of the strands were damp from her wet fingers. He was unharmed from the scuffle with the raider, she noted vaguely as he stopped and drank from the canteen. Seeing him for the first time in broad daylight was interesting. Ancel was more ruggedly handsome in the light than in the dark, but it was barely a complimentary thought, more an observation. “Don’t call me that,” she said when he called her Rebecca. Becky didn’t like her name. Her father used to call her Rebecca, used to spit it out of his mouth while he was drunk like she was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. She stood up straight again and picked her hoodie off of the ground.
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Post by ancel on Sept 27, 2009 23:26:59 GMT -5
Ancel looked at her dumbly for a second, then back at the rushing stream. He swore Rebecca was more fitting... but, oh well, she believed what she wanted to. He smiled at her. "The sun's coming up. Would you like to stay with me? I'm going to return to my Headquarters..." He hoped she would say yes, but continued. "If you don't want to come with me, you don't have to. But... I can't really guarantee your protection then." He drank out of the canteen once more, and refilled it. He looked up and down the river... except for this little place, it looked like the thin line of trees surrounded it all along the way.
The day was just starting, and there was plenty of time to travel. Ancel hadn't been so familiar with the streets of Leeds as he was now. When he was in highschool, he only needed to know the way from his house to his school, nothing more. All other destinations, he would always get directions to, and he rarely went outside of the city. It was such a sprawling metropolis that you could find everything you needed in the city. There was really no need to leave. He hadn't ever known about this area. Apparently it had been a popular freshwater fishing spot. He noted a sign on the other end of the stream, across from him. It read "Clear Creek." How fitting... this was one of the few clean water sources in the city. Ancel looked into the water and saw a fish. Without thinking, he reached in and grabbed it. He pulled it out, inspected it, and threw it back in. "Not big enough for a meal," he noted.
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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 28, 2009 23:18:05 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
She dropped her eyes to the ground when he looked at her for a second. Maybe her voice had been rather harsh when she answered him; she didn’t know what she sounded like to other people. It had been such a long time since there had been anything worth talking about. Becky didn’t really like to talk and found it more of an interest to watch other people and nod at the appropriate times. The last intelligible conversation that she could recall was with her aunt and that had been two years previously, before she died in the midst of this medical madness. Becky never cried for her family when they died in front of her. She never cried for her father and if she would have ever, they would have been tears of joy at his departure. Her mother and sister deserved nothing from her. But her aunt… Becky wished that she could have cried for that woman, that savior to her; but Becky wished for the impossible. She could never dry, not even for a woman that she loved so much. That was loneliness, to remember her and not be able to ever see her again. She didn’t even know where she was buried, probably in a mass grave with hundreds of other casualties of the virus. It wasn’t fair.
Becky twisted her hoodie between her rough hands, her long fingers picking at the holes and running her fingertips over them. There was that question again, whether she would stay with him or keep on by herself like she usually did. There were more advantages to going with him than to stay on her own, but she also didn’t know how far she could trust him or when the urge would hit her to go wandering again. She liked to wander on her own, she always had. Her blue eyes went back up to watch him while he looked up and down the stream, apparently looking at the tree line. “Why would you want to guarantee my protection?” She asked, turning her body more towards him and taking a step away from the water’s edge towards him. “You don’t know me,” she added softly, tossing a strand of hair out of her face. Becky had been wondering why he would want to go to that trouble of protecting her for that very reason. If he thought that she couldn’t take care of herself on her own than he was mistaken. She’d been doing it for two years and had survived that long. Then again, the raider from last night came to mind and she wasn’t so sure anymore. Maybe she was getting complacent.
She flinched slightly when he suddenly reached into the water and pulled out a fish. She stared at him as he examined it and she almost laughed humorlessly when he tossed it back in. The idea of a meal, an actual three-course meal with desert and fancy silverware and plates didn’t even seem possible and that was the image that came to her when he spoke. Anything was better than nothing when it came to food, even down to the worst little crusts of bread and canned goods. Cans of food could last a long time; it didn’t guarantee that they would taste very good.
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Post by ancel on Sept 29, 2009 21:54:52 GMT -5
Ancel nodded, looking down at the ground. "No, I will protect you. You're good." He looked in the water, and tears suddenly formed in his eyes for the first time since his girlfriend... died. He thought he had run out, but all the people he had killed since then finally caught up to him, and he went back to the remains of the coal so the girl could not see his weakness. He sat down, staring at the dead coals and crying. The dead coals... slowly withering away like a life dying out, the fire of life slowly fading within them, becoming cold and black. It reminded him of death, and caused him to cry even more into his worn jeans, as the hot sun began to rise further in the sky. He suddenly rose and shook his head. No, he couldn't let this happen to him. He had to fight on and survive... but regret would always be there. All those people he killed... they survived, were driven insane by death. He was, also, but he somehow retained some sense of morality, and did not steal.
He looked around at the environment, sobered. He suddenly heard a noise from very far off, and perked up. He grabbed Kameo from where it had been lying on the ground, and rushed back to the river. The noise had sounded like several people--raiders. "Dammit, Becky. I'm sorry, we have to go right now. Follow me, or--" he looked at her briefly, "Or you're going to die."
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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 30, 2009 18:23:30 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
His reasoning did nothing to convince her to go with him. It did more in making her want to stay on her own actually. He didn’t know her and saying that she was ‘good’ wasn’t a reason. Ancel knew nothing, almost nothing about her, but he was going to make this assumption about her and plan an order of protection on it. That made no sense. Was it because she was younger than him, or because she looked like some lonely sad little girl who needed a man to take care of her? Becky wasn’t all that good. She had watched people from a distance be killed; she watched raiders steal and hurt people while she hid, unable to tear her eyes away from those monstrosities that she had witnessed. She could have helped, there was a chance that she could have helped the innocent and she let those opportunities pass her by. He really knew nothing about her other than her name.
She had stared down at the ground in disbelief at his reply but she heard him move and she only saw his back as he walked away. But for a second she saw his face and she could hear him crying. Becky was at a loss for what to do. She stood there uselessly for a moment staring at him as he sat down back by the fire. Becky didn’t want to intrude on what seemed to be a slight abrupt breakdown. Running a hand through her hair, she started to walk slowly back to where he was sitting, blocking out the sounds of his crying as she got closer. It made her uncomfortable to hear a man crying. Her dad used to cry sometimes when he was really drunk, blubbering about stupid shit that Becky didn’t care about; and just as suddenly he would turn around and yell at her or grab her by her skinny arm.
Becky knelt down and grabbed her boots, bringing them closer to the river and putting them on, adjusting her feet against the soles, rough from all of the walking she did. She tugged her hoodie on and zipped it up, reaching into the pocket for her CD player, looking to see how much of the battery was left. She knew a place where she could get more but she didn’t like the burden of carrying them around with her all the time. Carrying too much made her feel weighted down. Becky glanced back over her shoulder at where Ancel sat and then looked back at the water, waiting for him to come back. She didn’t think to go and comfort him; she didn’t know really what she would have said to him to console him. She didn’t know what was wrong with him.
She was still fiddling with the CD player when he came back next to her and she looked up at him, slightly startled by his change of attitude. She heard a sound like footsteps, tried to tell how far off it was, but he was talking and she assumed that he had heard it a few seconds before she did. Becky didn’t need to be told twice and she was already moving in the opposite direction from the strange sound when she nodded.
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Post by mai kosovka navaeh on Sept 30, 2009 19:09:14 GMT -5
;love me, hate me, say what you want about me,,
Mai had been fiddling around in the grass, long overgrown far past her height, and so she was swallowed up by the reaching compiles of plant cells. She wasn't allergic, but she definitely couldn't help but itch her arms, feel the tinge of what it might be to be allergic to such a mastering creature. Her bo staff was grasped in her right hand, and she used it to serparate the blades in front of her, looking out ahead and listening to sound. Any sound. Breathing. Talking. Conversing. Screaming. She was tired of being alone, as she had been for several months. The last group she ran into was gone before she knew their names, off into the coming sun. It'd been depressing to Mai, as they had taken such sweet care of her and then rushed into the distance, but she sucked it up and tried to move on, walking to the next place of camp.
Then she smelled it. Fire. Not just fire, but put out fire, and her nose detected the smoke of the fire gone, and it was nothing more than a sigh to her. Someone had been here, been so close by, and now they were gone, and she was still alone. Still, might as well follow the smell and check out what was there. Maybe she could salvage something. Maybe.
The camp was clear enough, with a few pieces of wood and a carcass and some damp ground. "Someone's meal," she said to herself. "I wonder why they felt the need to leave." There was nothing left, though, save for those bones with nothing one them. That's how it was these days, you wasted nothing, because your next meal could be in a week or two. Any longer than that, and you were sure as dead. You'd have been too weak to move, let alone hunt. Hunt.. the word sounded so weird in her mind, and she felt so primitive at this point. GRocery stores? What were those? No, just hunting now. Hunting and gathering.
Rustle. Mai perked up and her ears moved back, like an animal, as she raised her eyebrows, listening to the sound of the blades of grass moving. Rustle. Rustle. It sounded like there were quite a few of them. Heavy, rough.. they didn't sound like survival, but who knows what they were these days? There was another sound, too, quicker, rushed. Someone was running away. Probably whoever had set up this camp, and so those heavy footsteps were probably something among a group of raiders, ever so common. She'd been raided once, and it was not pretty. Not an experience she wanted to relive.
But the footsteps were so very close, and there wasn't time to run away. If she went toward the running steps, she could give them away, and they'd all be dead. So, without hesitation, Mai climbed up the tree which was more than likely the reason for the position of the camp, scurring up like a squirrel who believed it was in danger. But a low branch would not suffice, no, because low branches were visable. Higher and higher, until she was as high as she could go without risking falling. The branches and leaves covered her position, for now, and so she looked out among the break into the horizon.
Out in the grass, she saw it move. The runners. She marked where they were headed, because she would catch up when it was safe to move. Until then, she looked down and noticed the raiders were in vicinity, and kept as quiet as possible. A bo staff was a nice weapon, but it'd do nothing against their guns.
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Post by ancel on Sept 30, 2009 21:56:47 GMT -5
Ancel rushed with Becky up to where there campsite had been. His eyes widened as he saw a footprint. He looked around quickly, assessing the threat. Undoubtedly, one person was less of a threat than the group of raiders that were invisible to him behind the tall stalks of grass. He focused his energy into hearing the direction of the march, and began to walk away, beckoning Becky to follow. He sniffed at the air, smelling the campfire smoke. Of course, that was so stupid, letting it burn out like that... He should have covered it with dirt, or rabbit urine... He felt like bashing his head in for being so stupid.
He looked back towards the treeline where they had left camp. Was that-- a rustle in the upper branches of a tree? How could a person get there? Sensing that the raiders would soon be there, but were still far away, he aimed Kameo at the limb he had seen shaking, and shouted. "Be you friend or foe, you will die if you don't move now. By my gun now if you be foe, and by the raiders when they come by and undoubtedly search the trees, unless you want to be friend." He looked to Becky, nodding for her to run on without him. "Hide next to... that rock over there," he whispered, pointing towards a rock formation jutting out of the ground in the tall grass. If he... died, she could easily escape from that point.
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Post by strangerdanger on Sept 30, 2009 22:28:08 GMT -5
I LEFT HER FIFTEEN YEARS BEHIND.
She didn’t see the little things in the environment that he did. If she had been looking harder, she would have, of course. Becky wasn’t an idiot and she wasn’t a fool to know when someone was following her or had been there before. She used to go hunting all the time with her friends when she still lived in New Jersey. Her friends were all guys and most of them older than her; she was just one of them, another guy just with long hair. She didn’t act like a girl, that was for sure. Usually, Becky didn’t need to be mightily alert of those little things. She moved away too quickly, always moving, never stopping for more than a minute if even that much. The stored that she frequented were mapped out in her head and she always knew where at least two exits were; she knew when other people came around. They were things like that that she kept in mind. Other miniscule things slipped her mind.
Becky followed him, trusting him to know where he wanted to go and how to get there without being tracked by the group of raiders that must have been nearby. It was more than one person; Becky could hear that in the sounds of their steps. She kept glancing at him, seeing his mind working when she looked at his face. It was quickly becoming pretty apparent to her that she was going to be with him for at least a good portion of the day. After that, there was no knowing where she would be. The future was a mystery though it didn’t look much brighter than the past.
Her hand went to the knife that she had in her back pocket, hovering over her jeans, as he pointed his weapon at a tree branch close to them. Becky looked up at it and tilted her head, squinting slightly, trying to discern a person there. If it was her there, she would have made an effort to hide herself very very well between the leaves and branches.
A twinge of annoyance shot through her mind when he told her what to do. She took a step back but she did nothing other than that. She wasn’t going anywhere while he stayed behind trying to protect her for no reason. That was stupid. Her eyes shifted to the direction that the footsteps had come from, tempted to remind him that they had been running away for a good reason. Why not just leave this behind and keep moving? But Becky said nothing, as was usual for her.
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Post by mai kosovka navaeh on Sept 30, 2009 22:56:27 GMT -5
;love me, hate me, say what you want about me,,
Gun point. A man and a girl, young in their age, like her, though the man for sure had some age on her and some wisdom as well. She frowned at the gun, then looked back. The raiders were gaining, so there wasn't exactly a time block in order to argue that they were just as noticeable as her and were idiots for coming back to the camp.
So instead, Mai jumped down the branches, swinging on the last one. "We don't have the time to find out," she frowned, instantly moving. "Let's go. Those guys were dressed pro, and I really don't want to find out if they were just looking for a meal to share."
Mai's feet pushed off the ground, the wild organisms in the form of grass slapping her face as she did. She could taste the grass, for sure, the taste of something sweet like honeydew mixed with the rotting flesh of the millions who died in the area alone. It sickened her to think that death could taste so sweet, that she might actually enjoy the taste, that it pleasured her taste buds so well. But not time to think, spit, or regurgitate, only enough time to run.
A pause at the creek. "Those raiders did not look very happy. Do you happen to have a place in mind for defensive manuveurs and shelter? We can't keep running all night.." She frowned and jumped across the creek, her blanket flying behind her. She had nothing to carry the silly blanket in, so she wore it like a cape. Perfect for these colder weather conditions, anyway.
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