Last Chance...

LadyHarpy

Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. One post per day
  3. 1-3 posts per week
  4. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
I enjoy Fantasy, Scifi, Romance, Magical, Modern and much more. I probably can't list them all! If there is something you want to try and it isn't listed here, just ask. I rarely say no!
It was quite that day, peaceful and calm. The sky was grey and cloudy, showing signs that it might start pouring rain at any moment. It was the kind of day someone would get a cup of coffee and watch TV...but not anymore. The silence was not welcome at all, in fact it brought more fear than the relaxing comfort that used to come with it, especially in a city like Saint Louis. If someone said that this city would become mute a few months ago most would laugh and just brush them off without a second thought. However, the seemingly innocent illness breakout had taken a tole on the city, killing hundreds if not thousands. It did not stop there though, the world over lost so many lives that the once worldly population that was in the billions shrunk into the thousands. No one knew where it came from or how it even started, the only thing they did know was that the death was thankfully painless...

All that remained was chaos now, people killing people just over a scrap of food or a simple piece of cloth. Most humans had taken to the rural areas, having better luck in the wild than in the dangerous and possibly poisonous cities that barely stood from the first few weeks of raids. Some people had stayed behind though, hiding in the shadows as they waited for most of the violent people to slip away in search of better supplies and water. Once most of the danger was gone, they continued to scavenge and thrive in the concrete jungle that remained. One person in particular was doing very well...

Carlie was one of the lucky people in the city, still surviving in her small apartment. Most of the people that still remained continued to raid major stores and shops, taking things that weren't even of any value anymore. She on the other hand had been raiding book stores for things on survival and nature, anything that would help her in the long run. Things were running low, soon all the food will either be bad or stolen, leaving her no choice but to pack up and head out into the nature like the others had. At the moment, she was getting ready to head out into the city once again, to scavenge around the rubble of the shops and she was she could use for trip out west. She tugged on her thick fur boots, them being the only pair she could find in the mess that had been a shoe store. The rest of her outfit was black, black legging and long sleeved shirt, a larger black sweater over that. On her back was a back pack with a first aid kit, the rest of it empty so she could put things into it, in the pocket of the sweater was a switch blade, both for defense and for cutting.

After throwing her hair into a bun she left her apartment, locking the door behind her before she hopped down the stairs. She slipped out the back door and wandered in the back alleys, not wanting to bring attention to herself. She continued to wander around by herself, looking almost like a ghost as her thin and lanky form made its way though the barren town. Carlie hope that nothing would happen today, the storm hanging over her head only made her worried about what might come with it...
 
Oh look a city, yay! The group Ted was in had been traveling for a while and were in relatively good spirits because they found a good sized wagon with good wheels and even a couple little breaks to prevent it from rolling any where they didn't want it to. So anyway onward they went, looking for shelter and supplies if they could find them. They weren't in desperate need of supplies but books would be pretty awesome.

There was a pretty tall building that they came by, they had spotted some other potential shelters nearby also. There were fourteen of them total, so nine of the people broke into groups of three to search the potential shelters while five of them remained with the wagon in a some what secluded area. Ted went with George and Nora into the taller building. Ted had a trusty bit of pipe while George had a wooden bat and Nora had a golf club.

Ted lead the way into the building, whistling jovially. "Ted! Shut up you'll give us away!" that was Nora, whispering loudly at him. "Hey, maybe what ever's in there is friendly" he replied as he turned around and smiled at her. Nora scoffed and turned an annoyed look from Ted to an incredulous look to George. George responded with a shrug of his shoulders. Ted laughed and turned back around as he entered the build, whistling again
. They started scrounging around the first floor of the building, Ted became bored and climbed the stairs to the second floor with a shouted "Be careful!" following him up the stairs from Nora. Finding nothing interesting and becoming bored once more he went up another floor. Ted was on the fifth floor when he felt the building shift, and then jolted downward almost knocking him off his feet. He heard a crash of many panes of coming from down bellow and then the building jolted again, hard. The building was collapsing.

Ted's first thought was to go down the stairs but the building gave another jolt and a corner of the floor he was on broke off and fell downward. Ted changed his mind. He ran away from the collapsing floor as it was breaking away behind him. His only hope was the window and he crashed through it with a dive. Ted's back hit the roof of a neighboring building some feet down and the breath escaped him. Coughing he rolled onto his side as he tried to regain his breath and again found himself falling once again until he hit lower roof and from there rolled down and finally fell onto the street where he decided to stop moving for a while as he listened to the crashing and crunching of the building as it's lower floors collapsed causing the building to be drastically lopsided. For a while Ted just had to stay still and catch his breath.
 
Carlie made her way around the city quickly, slipping through tight spaces and jumping over old wire fences. She had become pretty athletic since the virus took over, she had to when the littlest drop in her own health could mark the end of her. It also didn't hurt to be able to run away from possible threats, especially when people were determined to try and kill you more than befriend you. She her a strange sound in the distance and turned toward it, noticing that one of the taller building was slowly falling to the ground. She paled a bit as she saw a cloud of dust and rock float into the air. She knew better than to go toward things like that but if another group of refugees was entering the city again it would be better to make herself known sooner rather than later.

She made her way toward the building, coming from an alley way in the back. She covered her face with her sleeve as she slowly made her way though the dust, making sure not to stumble upon anything and get herself hurt. As she got closer the dust started to dissipate an float away, allowing her to see much better. As she looked around she caught sight of a lump on the ground, she though that it might have been an unfortunate animal that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, when she heard a rather human like breathing she moved a bit closer and realized that it was another person, a man to be specific. She hesitantly made her way over to him as stopped just out of reach, uncertain on if she should offer her help or not.
 
Ugh, dusty. Ted tucked his face into his coat as dust spewed from the building. As he calmed down and the adrenaline subsided he felt all the aches in his body from the falls he took to get where he was at right now, on the ground. Pretty soon though he knew he should get up and get back to the group and see if George and Nora were okay. Pushing himself up onto his feet he faced the wreckage and marveled at how cool he was for jumping out of a window of a falling building and coming away from it alive. He realized as he was stretching himself out and checking the damage, which wasn't severe, that he dropped his pipe but the bow he had slung across his chest was still in tact along with the metal quiver of arrows which he unfortunately landed on a couple of times.

Ted walked to where his pipe was and bent down to pick it up. Upon picking up his pipe he saw that there was a chick behind him. He straightened up as if everything was fine but he slowly turned around with his pipe raised at an angle as if to deflect an attack and stared the girl down.
 
Carlie watched quietly as the man got up and looked over the damage of the building. She was rather impressed that he was even able to get up at all, for she assumed that he had just nearly missed being caught in the rubble of that building. She took note that he was armed and backed up a bit silently, not wanting to get his attention in any way. He seemed to be fine and there was no reason for her to stick around much longer, if she could sneak away without being caught it would be for all the better. However, he did catch notice of her and was quick to become defensive, holding up a metal pipe as if ready to fight her. Carlie herself held her hands up innocently, not wanting to seem dangerous. She couldn't inflict much damage anyway with how thin she had gotten, the only thing that was strong about her was her legs.

"Hey, Hey...I'm not gonna hurt you, no need to get violent now..." She said slowly, showing that she was more frightened of him than he was of her.
 
Well she seemed innocent enough but he wasn't going to let his guard down completely. He lowered the pipe and the last bit of adrenaline caused from seeing this stranger. That's when he became acutely aware of the pains in his body and his legs trembled slightly. Not wanting to seem entirely weak Ted scooted himself over to the wall of the building he landed on and leaned against it, appearing non-nonchalant while preventing himself from breathing hard. "Who's getting violent?" he cocked a grin at her and looked around at where he landed. He would have to walk around the whole block to get back to his group, he was assuming Nora and George had gotten out safely. "Well it's been pleasant talking with you but my buddies will be looking for me." With that he pushed off the wall and started shuffling down the street, his ears strained for the sound of footsteps following him.
 
Carlie knew better than he probably thought, she was smart enough to think that there was no way he had escaped without coming to some injury. On top of that she took noticed of his shaking knees and his shuffling over to lean on the building behind him. She lowered her hands slowly and watched him curiously, his grin and attitude being things that she hadn't dealt with for a very long time. When he mentioned a group she understood there were more people, and hopefully this little incident would make them move through quickly. She only hoped that none were lost in that building collapse for when lives were lost people always slowed down. She watched him shuffle away slowly before clearing her throat a bit.

"You're not going to get very far after getting hurt like that...I have some medicine if you'd like it." She offered to him, taking pity on the poor man who now had to shuffle in pain back to his own people.
 
Ted was making pretty good time, relatively speaking, when the chick cleared her throat and he had a feeling she meant to say something to him. And she did. "Oh I'm sure I'll be fine, just a few big bruises and maybe a cracked rib. As long as I don't try to climb over shit or breath deeply I'll be peachy!" Just then the pipe fell out of his loose grip and he stared down at it angrily "Damn..." he eased himself down to the ground and sat there flexing his hand. It didn't seem that bad, must have just been distracted by walking. "Yeah I might need some painkillers or something, I'm afraid I don't have a prescription though." He didn't bother laughing at his joke, it would hurt.
 
Carlie walked over to him slowly as she opened her backpack, pulling out the first aid kit and grabbing the bottle of painkillers. She took a couple pills out of the bottle and held them out to him quietly, still keeping a bit distant just to be cautious. She smile a tiny bit as his joke and almost laughed, though she stopped before doing so. She knew that he was in pain and the sooner he took the medicine the better he would feel.

"They aren't very strong but they will be better than nothing." She said softly as she placed the pills into his hand.
 
Oh goodie pain pills. He said "Thanks" before swallowing the pills and decided to wait a few minutes before getting back up. Ted looked around as the awkwardness started building up. "So uh you got a group or anything?."
 
She watched him swallow the pills and crouched down next to him, making sure that he would be alright before she move on to find more food and supplies. When he asked if she had a group she shook her head slowly and looked at the ground.

"No...most people in the city left in family groups or wanted nothing to do with others so I stayed alone, it was easier than trying to work with strangers anyway, especially in the beginning." She said softly as she looked to him. "So, you are in the group? Where did you come from?"
 
"Came from the north east kinda far from here. Weren't many natural resources so we came south and then west, here." He gestured around at the street. "And then on toward the Rockies or what ever." He looked at her for a second "You been here by yourself?"
 
With a small nod of her head she answered his question without a bit of hesitation. She had no reason to lie to the man and so far he hadn't tried to hurt her in any way. She stood up slowly and looked down toward him, though her gaze seemed to be more interested in her boots than it was in him.

"By myself since the beginning..." She said plainly.
 
"Hm" Ted made a thoughtful noise. "Wow sounds like it sucks." Ted decided it was time to go, he was pretty sure the group was looking for him and didn't want them to think he was dead or something. "Well I better get going, don't want the group to think I'm dead or something." He used his pipe to help himself up and stretched himself a little. "Thanks again for the pills." He started shuffling away again, he wasn't sure if the pills were helping or not, but he decided to believe they were. He almost put a little pep in his step but it hurt so he didn't.
 
Carlie watched as the man got up slowly and started to shuffle away again. She stood there for a moment quietly before turning back towards the way she had come from to head back out to the task she had in mind. There was no point keeping him there against his will nor was there a point for her to stay around much longer either. She had to go find supplies and couldn't waste her time taking care of a stranger that she barely knew.

"Stay safe." She said simpley to him as she turned and made her way down the street.
 
Before he got too far the nagging feeling he was feeling made him stop and look around. Ted stared after the girl for a while as he considered. Finally, before she got too far, he called to her "Hey uh....Hey!" he realized he didn't know her name. "Do you want to come with me?"
 
Carlie turned around when he called her and stopped, looking at him curiously for a moment. His offer surprised her, she did not expect to be invited to the group, especially into one that wasn't even from the city. She thought for a moment, debating if it would be a good idea to go. If she stayed here she would still have to leave eventually, however if she went with these people now then she would have a bit more support out there on the road. She nodded her head slowly for a moment before walking over to him.

"Alright...I'll go with you." She said softly.