[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel / Audrey - Academy / Gas Station ((Collab Post)[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel looked at the girl with a quizzical stare. "You've really got a bad outlook on people, don't you?" He asked, shouldering his bag. "You need help. I have the means to help you out. Is it so hard to believe that I'm just a good guy?" He added, sliding the range finder into his back pocket.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Well, that's how people have been ever since this happened. At least they have been to me." Aubrey watched Abel intently as he put the small binocular looking thing back in his back pocket before she nodded at him. "Alright. How would we clear it out? I don't exactly have a reliable weapon." [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]After he clipped the straps of his bag together and tightened the slack, he extended the whistle towards her. "I'm thinking, since they're attracted to sound, that you could distract them while I come up behind them and take them out from the back, one-by-one." He presently drew his sword from its scabbard, spinning it once in circle.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Aubrey beamed at the idea, thinking that it might actually work out. "Okay," she responded as she walked over and took the whistle from him and putting her head through the string to keep it as a necklace just in case. "If you wanna, you can hide behind the vehicle while I break the glass?" Aubrey offered as she began to look around for something heavy enough to break the glass doors. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]He nodded as she spoke. He reached back into a small side-pocket of his rucksack, retrieving a knife, holstered a leather sheath. He handed it to her and fixed his bag, then said, "I can shoot the glass from back here." He said, his hand dropping to his revolver.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Aubrey smiled as she took the knife from Abel, feeling her sense of security returning to her in a way. It felt good to not be defenseless, and they both knew that a big shard of glass wasn't going to help anyone. "Alright, let's do it!" It was strange for the girl to feel either happy or any form of excitement ever since she had lost her friends after leaving her University, but for the first time since, she felt genuine joy. Even though it meant releasing several dead corpses and being bait from the get go. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Go." He said to her, and squatted down out of sight of the corpses.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]As Aubrey approached the doors, Abel instructed her to step back, enough for him to safely shoot out the doors. He crouched behind the hood of the car, drawing his revolver. He aimed and fired two shots into the glass, shattering it with a loud impact, taking two of the roamers from the get go.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Although the shots were loud, Aubrey tried her best from getting distracted by the ringing in her ears. She began blowing the whistle but kept them short to keep any other walkers around the area from being drawn in. At least she thought it would work that way. As she kept blowing, she waved at Abel that they were going to begin passing the car so that he could keep hidden, and then once more she gave a signal that the last one was walking out from the doors.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel moved silently, his boots making no sound. He came behind the small herd and stabbed his sword into the first one. He swung hard and lopped another one's head clean off. Five more and his swore was soaked in gore. He continued until the final two turned, their attention drawn from Aubrey. The closer one lunged at him, but he shoved it to the ground. With expert movement, he kicked the last one in the knee causing it to buckle and stumble, slicing through its skull as it fell. He sank his sword into the fallen roamer, then breathed a sigh. "Was that so hard?" He asked, wiping the blood from his sword.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Aubrey had watched Abel cut through the walkers as if this was just a hobby or another day at work for him. She wanted to help, to try and get herself used to facing these kinds of challenges, but the man didn't even wince. Even when the two had completely ignored her and gone after him. Smiling, the blonde rolled her eyes and took off the whistle to hand it back to Abel, "Teamwork makes the dream work. You think that was all of them, though?"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]The young man shrugged, running a hand across the stubble on his chin. "Well, its fifteen less of them, that's for sure." He said. "Let's go in and clear the place before we get comfortable."[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]The young woman nodded, agreeing with him before beginning to walk over to the shattered glass doors. "Can I borrow this?" She asked quietly as she showed him the knife he had already let her borrow. Once he said yes, Aubrey gave him a quick thumbs up before focusing on what she had came for. "I need to get to the archery section. A bow and arrows is all I need," she whispered, fearing that now that they were in the entrance, they might be heard. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"To the archery section, it is." He nodded, drawing his sword. He didn't have anything he was looking for since he'd only come to help her. In fact, he shouldn't have been there anyways. Thom was waiting for him in Natchez. Despite this, the young man followed his new companion into the store, guarding her six.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]As the two went deeper into the store, Aubrey could smell the decay of people who must have died here either recently or from the beginning of the outbreak, or both. Although she had faced many different things during her time with Magnus and Tremblay, the smell of rotting flesh always made her gag, but she didn't want to seem weak in front of Abel. He was still a stranger to her, and although he had helped her, he could easily just be pulling some sort of trick on her. So Aubrey simply sucked it up and got over her disgust of the stench, keeping her eyes open in case there were any more walkers on their way towards where the weapons were at. It had been a while since she was in an Academy, so she just went in the general direction of where the archery supplies were in the one back in her home town. "Do you think we should split up and check the area or stay together?" [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel thought for a moment. "We should stay in vicinity of each other. This place is big and there could be roamers wandering around here." He whispered.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Aubrey nodded, agreeing once more with Abel. With a sigh, she began in the farthest corner, which quickly turned into a bad decision as she came face to face with a walking corpse. Her first instinct was to scream, seeing as how it was incredibly close. The blonde backed up quickly, pushing against Abel and sending them both tumbling down while the walker lunged but missed. With a quick movement, and sheer luck, Aubrey lifted her knife-wielding hand and brought it down with as much force as she could muster, crushing the blade into its skull. "I'm, i'm so sorry," was all Aubrey could say as she got up and turned to help Abel up, feeling guilty for pretty much failing at her one job.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]As he stood, he fixed his belt back in place. "Don't worry, you handled it fine." He said, a bit of grace in his tone, though she hadn't. "Found your aisle." He said, nodding to a section that was marked by a sign that read, "Archery."[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"We both know I didn't." She sighed, sounding a bit sarcastic. She didn't say anything else though, turning towards where Abel had mentioned and quickly walking down the aisle. It was dark but with just enough light from the entrance to see what was a bow and what wasn't. "There's no bows." Her soft whisper held a tinge of panic as she began to look more frantically. There were plenty of arrows, which she took without thinking twice, but bows there were none. "There! No.. It's a crossbow. I can't reach it." It was one of the displays that were mounted up on a wall near a shelf. Without asking, Aubrey quickly placed the arrows down on a glass casing next to the shelf and began to climb. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel waited as she got on top of the cabinet and reached for the crossbow. As he stood, he caught movement in his peripherals. He turned to spot nearly a dozen roamers across the floor, too far into the dark to see them immediately. His breath caught, and he reached up, pulling her down. He cupped his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming and quickly dragged her behind the shelf. "Roamers, shh." He said, removing his hand. "We have to leave it and get out, now." He said, peeking out and making sure they weren't compromised yet.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Even though things were seeming bleak since Aubrey couldn't find her recurve bow, she had settled for the one crossbow, but it seemed as if she couldn't even have that. In a blink of an eye, she had been pulled down from the shelf, and stood wide eyed as Abel tugged her along and explained what was happening. Aubrey wanted to pout and whine and scream and shout. It wasn't fair that she should leave, unarmed like she had come in the store. Still, she understood the situation at hand wasn't one that they should take lightly. Aubrey, once again, nodded in agreement to Abel's suggestion and waited for him to tell her when to run.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel crouched, leaning against the shelf, his hand against Aubrey's back. "Now." He whispered, giving her a nudge. He waited till she reached the other side of the store to break into a lightning fast sprint, the two of them dashing out of the door.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Once Abel had given the word, Aubrey tried her best to keep up with him, but quickly realized that she wouldn't be able to, even if she did try to push herself a little more than usual. Once they were out and well into the parking lot, the young woman quickly reached out to a nearby vehicle to hold herself upright and catch her breath. There was an overwhelming and crippling feeling of disappointment that washed over her as she realized that everything they did had been for nothing. Aubrey wanted to cry, pass out, and blow up the Academy all at once. She opted to keep her hands on the hood of the vehicle though, seeing as how every time she looked up, the world began to spin around. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel stepped to her side, nearly unphased by the sprint. "I'm sorry you couldn't get what you needed. We should get out of here before those roamers wise up and wander out here."[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Aubrey turned towards the Academy and frowned, wishing she could've been more patient back at the apartments in order to get her weapons back, but then once she remembered that moment, anger began to rise within her. "Okay. Wanna find some food with me, before I pass out?" Although her voice didn't portray it, her eyes held a bit of hope for him to say yes. It felt nice to have someone that was non-judgemental around. It was also nice to have something to deal with the walkers when she couldn't.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]After the two of them got onto his bike, Abel put distance between them and the Academy, getting himself a little bit closer to where he was to meet Thom. He stopped at a gas station, clearing the area quickly, and then taking inside. He informed her as to his plan, which was to have her wait there for him and Thom until they returned from the apartments.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Are you sure you'll be okay here until I get back?" The young man asked, shouldering his bag. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]"Yeah, go. I'll be good. We can go on a date when you get back." Aubrey responded. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]Abel released a small laugh, and nodded. "Deal." He said, then turned to walk out. Despite the positive interaction with the girl, Abel had one thought in head as he rode into Natchez - He was late, and Thom was not going to be happy with him.[/BCOLOR]