There's Fucking Zombies.

[HeliumJack]

Elana took a few steadying breaths, peering down through the dense foliage she had wedged herself into. She had clambered up a tree a few hundred feet or so, trying to get a good look at the clearing up ahead. Most importantly, she was trying to inspect the fairly large, old, and somewhat decaying, house in the clearing, for any possible life, or the undead that had taken over. A few months ago, although Elana had never been certain of what happened, and honestly she didn't think anyone did, people had suddenly been getting bitten by people who acted as if they had freaking crazy rabies. The disease had spread rapidly, and most of what Elana saw at this point was just zombie towns starving for brains.

Elana herself had been lucky. She had been out camping with her dad, far from civilization. When they entered town for supplies, they had found it empty except for a small number of zombies. It didn't take her dad long to realize what was going on, so they got supplies to last for a long while, packed up their gear, and began moving to somewhere hopefully safer. They had had no close family, as her mother had long left her father, so it was just the two of them for a good while. Her dad had taught her everything he knew about surviving, like skinning animals and making fire and potable water, but regretfully fell asleep during his watch one night, and was killed. Elana had managed to get away after his warning shout, and set out on her own after gathering what supplies they had in the morning, and she had been alone since.

Since she had started traveling alone, she had only seen hostile groups of survivors, who wouldn't ever let her get close enough to them to even speak, warning her off with guns and knives. So, Elana had been alone since her father passed, and most of the time she was content.
However, being alone had it's downsides. Like her situation now. She wished ruefully that she had someone watching her back while she scouted closer to the house. It was only a small clearing, and although she didn't see any at the moment, if a zombie stumbled up and saw her, she would have to abandon the house and dash and hope no others had gotten close in the trees without her seeing them. She would have to risk it though.

Elana shimmied carefully back down the tree, the bark scratching the few patches of bare skin. She was wearing a worn but comfortable old black duster coat she had found while she scavenged an empty home a few towns back. It was a bit big on her, but it offered camouflage during the night, and a thick padding between her skin and any surprise zombie chomps. Her cargo pants were a brownish gray, tucked into dark brown boots. Not fashionable by any stretch, but it had kept her from being bitten many times before.

On the ground, Elana crouched, and began slowly making her way to the house in the clearing, eyes constantly searching ahead and to the sides of her, and every so often she'd glance behind her, hand firm on her hatchet, her weapon of choice. She had a pistol strapped to her, the only gun she had been able to find ammo for, but she disliked using it heavily, not liking the attention it potentially drew to her by anyone.

Getting to the house probably only took her under a minute, but while vulnerable, it was definitely far too long. She had approached the big decaying thing from the side, and as she reached the wall, Elana stopped and put her back to it, still crouched, looking for any new surprises. None. Awesome. After ensuring she was alone on her side of the house, she crept towards the corner, intending to make it to the probably hazardous and overgrown back porch. The bushes she could see already from where she was would hide any zombie from the tree she had climbed, a potential hazard, but she could take one or two out, and the bushes would hide her from any others that decided to explore the clearing, at least until she could get inside.

Elana got to the corner, where the fenced porch began, and gently, carefully, pried one of the branches way from the house to open up the main part of the porch to her view.
Empty. Whew. Relieved, she let go of the branch just as carefully, and made a quick and hopefully silent dash to and up the stairs, making her way to the corner to her direct left, crouching between two bushes that would keep her hidden while she appraised the best way to get into the home, through one of the surprisingly unbroken windows, or breaking in the door.

 

[Lost]

The world had gone to hell. At least, Molly had thought that it was the entire world. It probably was. The usually optimistic thinker was having a hard time being so since the collapse of humanity in all its glory. Molly was sat on an old mattress she had pulled out into the living room of the house she had found in the forest. The place had been untouched, the young woman having gone through it multiple times to make sure that she was all alone. Each of the windows was shut tightly and the doors were locked, a chair blocking each of them so that if someone or something did get through they would have an extra obstacle to bypass in order to get to her.

So there she sat, on the mattress in front of the fireplace she couldn't use unless the fire was small. There wasn't much else, some clothes that lay strewn across a moth eaten couch next to her and an old rickety rocking chair in the corner. Food was in the kitchen. There had been a good amount left in the home. Molly assumed that the family had not been home at the time of the collapse so they had not been able to pack away their belongings. The blonde had done well on her own even before she had moved out to the old house in the middle of the forest.

She had been living alone while going to school a few towns over. Her family lived hours away and she knew that it was not safe to travel by herself so she had not even tried going home. Yet. She tried not to think of her family, a few of their pictures were put up on the mantel. Not everyone had been infected... There was still hope that they could be alive. It was her mission to find them.

The young woman's tall form was bundled in an old flannel and some jeans that were old and frayed. She had two pairs of socks on to keep her feet warm and her black, square framed glasses were still intact and framed her bright blue eyes. Her hair was long and blonde, a bit greasy but that was not something she could help right now with no running water in sight. Already having a somewhat slender build she had lost some weight due to wanting to save food just in case she needed to leave and move onto another place. She had the look of someone who had seen a lot. She had seen a lot. Any one who had survived this terrible event had seen a lot.

With a soft sigh Molly grabbed one of her books and lay down on the mattress, curling up under the old blankets she had found in a closet. Opening up the book she began to read it to ease her mind.​

 

[HeliumJack]

​

After a few moments, Elana decided she'd try to slide a window open before breaking anything and entering. Creeping up to the window, she cupped her hands on the glass and peered in, trying to make sure it was empty. She didn't see anything in the kitchen or beyond, so she started to try sliding the window up, with no luck. Disappointed, she tried the other window, too, and then the door. Neither budged. Elana furrowed her brows, peeved at her luck. Breaking a window was sure to attract the attention of anything in the woods, but she'd be able to board the window back up with something. Breaking the door in was less of a hazard to her, but was much harder to defend if she ever needed to.
Deciding that breaking one of the windows was her best option, she set her pack down for a moment, rummaging for a beat up old towel. She used it for breaking glass in cars or houses when she needed to. It had been the first thing her dad had taught her when they discovered the outbreak, and she had taken care to remember his advice. The first time he had shown her how to do it, they were being chased by zombies, and he had been urging her while she was panicking to go ahead and break the window to the store. She had hesitated, and a zombie lurched into the little clearing they were in, frightening her, and she had slammed her elbow into the window, crawling in hurriedly and unlocking the door. Her dad had come in a second later, closing the door and barring it with one of the shelves, and gave her a small, proud smile, praising her and ruffling her hair before beginning to bandage the cuts she had gotten climbing through the window. While he applied bandages, he told her gently that there was no time to hesitate, and the faster she could make decisions, the better off she would be.
Elana had always remembered that day when she broke windows as he had shown her. Something wrapped thickly around her elbow, pointed at an angle, bring it forward, and then smash it into the window, which she did now. The glass tinkled onto the ground on the inside, and she began trying to break in the shards left in the frame so she wouldn't cut herself on the way in.​