The Dead Among Us

[Moro]

Carson​

The cold winter air was nipping at my bare skin as I sat atop of my safe house. The movie theater off of Main St, served as a perfect place to hole myself up after things went to shit with my squadron. After it was just me left, I ran off on my own and by some luck found this place. Dallas and I have been hiding here since, gathering supplies as the days go by, trying to eat as little as possible but enough to keep up our strength. By now, Dallas was sleeping the day away after traveling so far to find any kind of supplies.. all the local places around the theater had already been cleaned out.

The sound of the dead growling and groaning below me made my skin crawl. I could just imagine their hands gripping my clothing and their teeth ripping away at my skin. Blood. So much blood. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of oozing blood. I'd been in the service for almost 5 years, but never seen blood shed like I'd seen it the last few months. It really messed with the mind. As I sat there on the edge of the building with my legs hanging off, I looked up at the night sky and tried to imagine I was somewhere else for the moment. I'd give anything to be anywhere else.. in any given time period. I wouldn't survive this. How could I?​

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

"Lucas! Lucas!" Emma called from a little distance in front of Lucas before running towards him holding what seemed to be a box full of weapon ammunition, judging by the light clinking noise it's contents were making, it was at least a little empty. When Emma was by his side again, she handed him the box, peering on the outside it read 5.56 x 45 mm "Damn! So close... It's so hard to find 7.62 x 51 mil cartridges these days... NATO cartridges are even rarer too." he thought to himself. "Good find Emma! You really have the eye for these things... But unfortunately it's not something my rifle can use." Lucas thought to himself for a moment before continuing "Howevever... If we can find another camp or something, we might be able to trade these in for more usable rounds, or at least some food... How does that sound?" Emma just nodded, both excited and nervous about what this meant; it's been a while since she's seen other people, but she wasn't sure how their next encounter would go. They'd had some pretty close calls with some nasty individuals, namely bandits, and sometimes a survivor who's pretty much lost their mind.

Making sure Emma stayed close to him, Lucas continued to treck throughout the ruined town, they were reaching the relative center of it as it seemed, the buildings seemed sturdier here despite how they have been degrading over the months they've been left without maintenance or repair. Just then, Lucas's foot brushed something; it was just a piece of gravel from the crumbling road, but looking closer, near where he had accidentally kicked that piece of gravel lay a trail of faded but still visible footprints... That meant there might be people living here, that's when he heard the growling and groaning sound sof the undead... "Shit! Emma, stay close... We might have a problem..." He whispered, Emma had a panicked look in her eyes but she nodded understanding the urgency of the situation by now and stuck behind him, grabbing onto his coat for comfort. It seemed they might have to find a way around this hoard, or investigate what's drawn them all here; there were two things that drew them quite like this, loud noise, and fresh meat... If it was the latter, just maybe there were other survivors holed up through them, however he wasn't sure just how many of the undead were roaming around, they couldn't take any chances until they could figure out if it was safe enough to stick around here.​

 

[Moro]

Carson
​

"Arrf!" I nearly jumped at Dallas's low bark that echoed from down inside the theater. Taking a second to recollect myself, I took one last stare out at the busy street full of trekkers, got up off my ass and walked over to the open metal door. "Dallas, hush up, boy!" I whispered down at Dallas, grabbing onto the handle and closing the door as I climbed down into the building on the old ladder to join Dallas, leaving it unlocked. 'I'll go back up once I get this mutt something to eat and quieted down,' I thought to myself with a smirk. Walking over to my bag, I dug out a thick item wrapped crudely in tin foil. As I unwrapped it, Dallas seemed to be losing his mind in excitement, wiggling all over. "Ha, you know Dallas.. someone saw you like this, they'd question if you're really as old and trained as you are. Actin' like a youngin' as you are." I laughed to myself and pulled out the raw deer meet with a bit of the bone still attached to it. A thigh bone, with a nice chunk of raw meat still left on it. "You enjoy this, and be prepared to go out for another run tomorrow. I don't think we'll be as lucky from here on out. That deer we tracked down the other night really hasn't lasted us long. We need to ration our food better, bud." I set the piece of meat down on the carpeted floor and Dallas immediately started digging into it. Seeing him tear into it the way he did, almost made me question myself if he was getting a bit out of hand with me not following through with his training. If only the Sarge could see him. I'd have it in for me.

While Dallas chowed down, I left the small room we had chosen to hunker down in and began to explore more of the theater. We'd only been here less than 4 days, it seemed.. and we'd spent most of that time out looting places nearby. I can't even remember anymore. Days are blending together.. s'getting harder to keep track. My knife and tac light in hand, I walked down to the front counter and began rooting through whatever cabinets and drawers there were. To my displeasure, the only thing I could find was a small bag of candy that I didn't even like. Sour Patch Kids. 'Yuck.' I stuffed them into my back pocket anyway, thinking that maybe one day I might get desperate enough and actually eat them. A loud smash from outside made me stop dead in my tracks and listen. It almost sounded like glass being broken. 'What in the hell..'​

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

As Lucas frowned, looking over the group of undead, he saw what looked like a theatre, it was in better shape than the rest of the area and looked like it may contain some valuable loot... However the undead population needed to be taken care of, and he couldn't just rush in there and start firing like a madman or something, even though he'd take care of the immediate problem, he'd put Emmas life at risk and draw attention not to mention wasted valuable ammo. Instead, he needed to make some sort of distraction, but how? Suddenly he felt Emma tugging on his coat, she didn't say anything when he turned to her though, instead, she pointed towards something not too far from them; it was a clump of bricks left around what looked to be an abandoned construction site, instantly, he had an idea about what to do. Their goal was to lead the undead away from that theatre, so he just had to make some noise somewhere else in the town, however the way he had in mind would be a little risky, though it would be the most effective one if it succeeded.

Walking over to the pile of bricks and picking one up; it felt rought to the touch and crumbled a little as he lifted it up, spying a building that looked like a restaurant building farther away from the construction site, a safe area to "herd" the undead into, he carefully judged the trajectory of his throw before he tossed the brick at the building as hard as he could. A loud crash could be heard, ringing throughout the seemingly abandoned town as the brick hit home after flying through the air a little, multiple groans arose from the undead crowd as they began to walk towards the building. Emma was about to walk out, heading towards the theatre, but Lucas stopped her by grabbing her arm "Not yet... Wait until they're all past us." he whispered, motioning to the few undead still lumbering towards that restaurant. Once the last of them had passed by then, Lucas started walking quickly, making as little noise as he could with Emma tagging along close behind him. Soon enough they were approaching the old abandoned theatre, though he was starting to doubt his presumption that the place was as desolate as he had believed it to be...​

 

[Moro]

Carson​

I shake my head and pull my pack straps on tight, pivoting towards the latter to the rooftop. I can hear Dallas barking and I sharply whisper, "Enough," stopping him mid bark. I glare at him and jump up a few steps on the ladder, making my way up with my ACR now slung over my shoulder, swaying as I climb. I reach the top and crouch over, walking to the edge of the building. My eyes catch a large and small figure run across the street towards the front doors of the theater - my heart stops. 'Would they try breaking down the front doors? ..the one's I've spent reinforcing the past day and a half? Shit.' I curse under my breath and run back to the ladder, whistling gently to Dallas. He knows what to do. Turning back, I make my way down to the ground, making my way around the whole theater, taking out a couple stragglers with my knife as I creep up the side of the building, peeking around to see the somewhat tall man and small child with him. 'He wouldn't try anything stupid with a child in tow, would he?' Another part of me thinks to myself, 'It's a different world, now. Anything can happen.' I grit my teeth and go against what normal protocol would suggest with a child in the mix, rounding the corner to face the two strangers and aim my assault rifle at the man, never looking at the child. In a hushed, but stern voice I say, "Holster your weapon. If you can do that for me, no harm will come to you or the kid." At that moment, I see Dallas just behind the two of them with his teeth bared, not making a sound just like I taught him. No growls or snarls, no attention from the walkers - with teeth bared, it still gets the message across. Agreed? I think yes.

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

Lucas was a little surprised, maybe even nervous when he saw a woman suddenly come up to him and speak, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Emma run to hide behind him silently, but the he heard her gasp for a moment before returning to his side. He wasn't sure if it was a stray walker or something else that made her gasp, but he nodded quickly to the woman, holstering his weapon and stepping to the side just slightly to avoid getting bitten by the undead just from standing here. Emma stayed silent though, she was rather shy around strangers after all, he raised his hands cautiously "We mean no harm... To be honest, I thought this place was abandoned." he said, keeping his voice down low, it wasn't like he was going to use his gun anyways; firing it would draw too much attention and undo all of his hard work in drawing the undead away from this area. After a moment of silence, Emma tugged on his shirt a bit, causing him to look at her "I'm hungry." she whispered quietly, Lucas could only nod to her right now "We'll eat a little later... Ok?" he reassured her, patting her on the head a little before he turned his attention back to the woman hoping she wasn't a bandit or something, he tensed himself up just incase though.​

 

[Moro]

I updated her info.. x)

Davina
​

I kept an eye on the man, but my eyes managed to wander back to the little girl when she spoke up for the first time. Everything about her reminded me of Alena when she was younger. I sighed softly to myself and looked past the man and child to Dallas who was awaiting my order. I motioned back toward the building and clicked my tongue twice, with that, he darted off back with a huff. My eyes finally met the man's again, letting my gun drop to finally let it's muzzle point to the ground. "I've got a decent amount of food stored up in this building. Been hiding out here for a while. I don't know how much y'all have as far as food goes, but if it's not much, I'm willing to share what I've got." I shoulder my weapon and slide my knife back in its sheath. Turning away, I glance over my shoulder and see the creeps starting to wander closer towards us. A decent group of them, too. "Let's go, before we're overrun. I don't want to be caught up in something that you brought upon us all, with all that racket you caused." I round the corner and jump up, grabbing the ladder leading to the roof. I hold the rope that I attached to the bottom step myself and climb the ladder slowly, looking down to make sure they follow.​

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

@A Tattooed Girl

Lucas nodded, he slung his weapon back over his shoulder, the same place where an RPG was, his knife was where it usually was; at his belt, though is RPG ammo was kept in his backpack with the rest of his extra ammunition and clips. He noticed the woman in front of her motion towards something behind him which turned out to be a dog, a rather large one at that, this made Emma gasp a little, but, she didn't say anything, she just looked at the dog curiously. Meanwhile, Lucas thought about what the woman in front of him said and nodded again "I've got some supplies, but, they won't last long... I guess we'll split the rations" he said. Despite willing to take anything he could get, this felt a bit morally wrong as he mostly traded for supplies, even the ammunition Emma had found for him wouldn't be enough to compensate for this, so, they'd just have to go scavenging. Though his emmidiate attention was quickly shifted to that large group of zombies which she'd brought attention to, admittedly that strategy he'd used back there was only effective in the short run, in the long run they'd have to hunker down since that noise brought more to this place. Emma looked a bit worried about this, but, she wordlessly nodded "We'll be alright here... We'll go look for things when they all go away, alright?" he reassured her, Emma seemed to cheer up a little "Okay!" she said, thankfully knowing to keep her voice low. They both watched as the woman they'd met climbed up before Lucas let Emma go up first, keeping his hands on his weapon incase the undead drew too close to them before he too climbed up after her, every now and then checking behind him to see how far the horde had progressed.​

 

[Moro]

Davina​

Once on the roof, I flip open the door that leads down into my little bunker of the theater. I turn back to see the girl and man making it onto the roof. Motioning for them to get down into the bunker, I can hear Dallas down below whining as if to ask what was taking me so long. "Hold on, boy. I'm coming down in a sec!" I look back at the man and child. "Please, we need to hurry." Still holding onto the rope that's attached to the bottom step, I walk to the edge of the building beside the ladder and yank it up so that it can't be reached and used by the dead or any bandits who might see the place as something they could get into.. easily.

 

[York]

@A Tattooed Girl

Lucas Burns​

Lucas nods quickly, giving Emma a gentle but firm push to speed up the process as they climbed the rest of the way up the ladder, he checked around the perimeter one last time before he turned to the woman he'd only recently met. "Is it ok now?" Emma asked quietly before Lucas could say anything, Lucas nods "We'll be fine." he said, before starting on his way towards the entrance inside the theatre. Emma followed closely behind him, though he stopped before he stepped inside, deciding to let the woman lead, he figured being polite was the least he could do... It was rare enough these days to find someone willing to shelter them and feed them with food being as scarce as it was, he realized he'd practically have to pay her back, somehow.​

 

[Moro]

Davina

Once the man and child were down below, I quieted Jackson down and climbed back up the ladder, shutting the door and sealing it tightly shut, safely locking us inside. I slowly clamber back down and turn to look at the two of them. The girl looked so scared and not sure of what to do with herself.. 'Maybe I should disarm myself.. might seem less of a threat, then,' I thought to myself as I began stripping myself of my weapons and my thick Navy Jacket. Setting all my weapons on top of the folded uniform jacket, I turn back to them and manage a half smile. "Well, welcome. There's um, some extra blankets and a pillow over there beside all those huge wires. The food is over there in one of those four coolers. Enough to go around, I'm sure. I have no problem going back out to find more if needed." I stand up straight and look over at Jackson who is peeking around the corner of the projector room, staring at the little girl. "Jackson, play nice. They're friendlies." At that, he bounds out of the room and runs over to the girl wagging his tail with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, bumping up against her legs as if asking her to pet or even simply just acknowledge him. I laugh a little and add, "Sorry, he really loves the young ones."

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

@A Tattooed Girl

Lucas looked rather relieved when he realized he was finally safe, he sighed a little, smiling gratefully when she pointed out the supplies and all that, seeing that it was alot warmer in here, he figured it would be alright if he took off his gear, starting with his backpack, laying it down. Next came his weapons; his old but trusty rifle which he'd been keeping in good condition followed by his RPG, thankfully no situation had called for that heavy weapon yet, it looked more worn, but, still in decend condition. Next, he took off his rather thick looking jacket revealing a rusty combat knife, sheathed and all, and his rather roughly, short, cut hair, placing down his coat next to his gear along with his combat knife. He smiled a little noticing that the dog was getting along nicely with Emma, when he had moved over, seeking her attention, Emma smiled "Ooh! Doggy!" she said, starting to pet him carefully, it was rare that she came into contact with tame animals, but, she'd taken a liking to them really, though she knew to stay away from the more... Unfriendly ones by now. Hearing the woman's apology, Lucas smiled a little "That's quite alright... Emma likes that sort of thing." he said with a small laugh. Soon enough though, he realized something "Oh er... I forgot to introduce myself." Lucas said, taking off his sunglasses and "clipping" them to his generic looking t-shirt, it was a faded, greenish one. "I'm Lucas Burns, and, that girl over there's Emma." He said, a more friendly smile crossing his face, it seemed he wasn't too suspicious of this place now that he saw no-one really wanted to hurt them.​

 

[Moro]

Davina​

I couldn't help but let my lips spread into a wide smile as I saw Jackson and the girl Emma interact. My attention was moved to Lucas as he spoke, nodding at his words and then feeling dumb for forgetting something too. I offer a soft, almost shy smile as he introduces himself and the little girl to me. I step closer and hold out my hand, shaking his firmly as I reply, "It's nice to meet the both of you.. my name's Maddison Davina-Marie Devereaux-Quinn. Quite the mouthful, really. I usually go by my middle name, but you can call me by Maddison, Maddy, Davina or whatever you'd like, really. On base I'm known as Sergeant Major Devereaux but I won't make you call me that. It's really unnecessary in these times to go by 'protocol'." I let out a light laugh, pulling my white shirt from being tucked inside my pants and unbuckling my belt, getting comfortable to settle in for the night. "How is it that you two have made it this far? Must have been rough.. not to judge you off of what I see, but you don't look like you've got much combat experience prior to this whole thing starting. Do you?"

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

Lucas shrugged "Well, Davina, I do... I just prefer to keep my distance." he said with a shrug, motioning over to his rifle with it's classic looking scope on it, he looked over at Jackson and Emma playing around before smiling and turning back to Davina. "To answer your first question, I guess me and Emma have been keeping a low profile... We're on the move alot you see, but, we trade every now and then. If you know your way around the place, you know where you run into the least trouble." He said, though soon enough, he sort of looked around "I guess this was an exception; we were running low on supplies after all." he said awkwardly, clearing his throat a little, he didn't seem to accustomed to talking this much. "Guess I didn't expect to run into this place but... Thanks for taking us in." Lucas said, smiling again, he sat down, deciding he'd settle in for the night too, he'd do some scavenging in the morning, he believed in repaying people for doing favors such as this. Despite how harsh conditions have gotten, he still felt like every nice action for him required something in return, maybe it was a moral code he's long forgotten it even had, or maybe it's just always been this way for him, but, at any rate, it didn't seem to be causing him too much trouble.​

 

[Moro]

With everything that had gone on the past few months for myself, it was nice to have a bit of human interaction again. Finally someone to talk to that wouldn't bark a response back. I glanced over at my boy who was curled up and sacked out beside the little girl, and I couldn't help but smile a bit. Letting my eyes fall back on Lucas, I shrug gently and mumble loud enough for him to hear me, "No need for thanking me. Only doing what I hope someone would do for me in your situation." With that, I bowed my head and turned to curl up in the torn up, old sleeping bag I only used when it became freezing at night. I sighed softly to myself and began to think of how things were before all this happened.. Before I could start thinking of my son, I reached up to grip my the charm on my necklace that he had once given me on mother's day and closed my eyes tight to sleep. It was the only thing I could do to keep from tearing up.. forcing myself to sleep. Suddenly, I felt a warm body pressing against my back and falling down to lay on the floor behind me. A low huff told me it was Jaxx, and I felt slightly better. He must have felt my sudden change in mood and came to comfort me. I then fell asleep, slowly letting myself drift off knowing I had my dog there to protect me.. like a small child afraid of the monsters under her bed, I was afraid of the ones in my head. I'd sleep good tonight knowing he would be there to fend them off.

 

[York]

Lucas Burns​

Lucas smiled a little "I guess I could learn a thing or two from you..." he commented, he reached over to grab his coat, covering himself with it to keep warm, he figured he didn't need a blanket yet. Though it seemed now that Jaxx had moved away from Emma, she had come over to snuggle with him, she looked kind of funny as she had squirmed her way over in her sleeping bag, it almost resembled a rediculous looking caterpillar or something. Lucas couldn't help but chuckled a little at that before Emma reached him "G'night Emma." he said with a bit of a smile. Emma nodded, yawning a little "G'nighty... Lucas... Sleepy time..." murmured a tired sounding Emma, she yawned again before she clurled up next to lucas and Jaxx, falling asleep really quickly. Lucas sighed a little "Sweet dreams... You too Davina." he said, letting out a quiet yawn himself before he got himself comfortable and closed his eyes, trying to get himself settled in. He couldn't help but notice Davina's restless state until Jaxx had joined them, but, he tried not to think about it, plus; asking about it would just be plain rude, so, he decided to remain silent and try and get some sleep... They had a long day ahead of them tomorrow, and, he knew he'd have to travel soon, but, maybe staying here for a while wouldnt hurt, plus, gathering supplies for Davina would be alright too, if there was anything usefull still left around here, which he was confident there was. No matter what places they'd scavenged, there was at least a few usefull items and resources laying around, usually hidden far away from plain sight, and in an area like this, crowded as it was, surely not too many scavengers like him would wander here, right?​